The Greenliness of a Product

Seth Godin, has a great idea to help market the greenliness of a product or service - and a way to avoid the usual greenwashing that plagues our supermarket shelves...

Here's what's missing: a number. When you buy a fridge, there's a big yellow sticker with a number about relative energy consumption.

Now, we could argue all day long about how to figure out the right number (should the number on the fridge include data about the amount of energy needed to make the fridge in the first place?) but an imperfect number sure seems better than no number at all.

Drive to Philadelphia: 150. Take Amtrak: 22.

Stick with the lightbulbs you have throughout your whole house until they burn out: 175. Replace them all now with something better: 142.

Organic strawberries from California: 88. Frozen strawberries from California: 80. Apple from Dutchess County: 4.

Seth's Blog: The coming backlash over green marketing