Going Green: Who Pays?
Reduce your carbon footprint.
It’s the current mantra of environmental responsibility.
Many consumers have reduced their primary footprint by making changes in their daily lives, like shrinking electricity use, switching to more energy efficient light bulbs at home, and cutting back—or cutting out—driving a car.
Consumers who want to reduce their so-called secondary footprint have to make tougher decisions about products and services beyond their daily control, weighing the whole lifecycle of the things they consume, as well as the environmental practices of the businesses they deal with.
But in many cases, going green costs green—and raises a question about whether consumers should be responsible for paying the price of reducing a business’s carbon hoof marks.
Some small businesses are now asking their customers to pay extra to help them, the Wall Street Journal reports, citing a San Francisco engineering firm that tacks a modest surcharge on to every bill to help pay for the company’s own renewable energy credits as a way of reducing its carbon footprint.
So far, no customer has refused to pay the extra fee. “I think they would feel too guilty,” said the CEO.
But the answers were very different when the Journal posed this question to its readers: “Would you mind paying extra to help a business reduce its carbon footprint?”
“Yes, I would mind,” one person wrote. “I do not ask you to pay for my charity work. It is pretty arrogant and self-righteous to ‘slip’ that into the bill.” Another reader was also opposed: “I would not pay something to someone to do something they should morally be doing anyway.” And there was this more business-like response: “Couldn’t they just bill more and not charge a separate fee?
Tell us what you think: Should consumers be financially responsible for helping businesses go green? Where does personal responsibility end and business responsibility begin when it comes to the cost of helping the environment?
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Cost of going green
I believe if “everyone” makes just one move toward a healthier environment we will make a difference. I changed all my light bulbs as soon as I heard about it, and the best thing about that is that they never seem to blow out. I was spending a ridiculous amount of money on light bulbs and now with the new ones, I am personally saving money. It’s a twofer.
Going back to a push lawn mower is a brave change, and think of the physical aspects of it. You have to use more physical energy to mow the lawn…another twofer.
If we “all” try, I’m sure that is what we will find, the blessing on the other side, the benefit we never expected. Making change for the environment can only benefit us in the end.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Going green
The thought occurred to me after I signed off last time to mention that an excellent source of logic for “going green” might be our Native American neighbors. I have read a great deal about their culture. It is an understatement to say that they relied upon and respected the environment that ultimately provided them with all the necessities of life. It’s not hard to see that we are so far removed from the natural world because of our modern conveniences that we probably have lost our emotional touch and conscience. It doesn’t take much to get it back, just the desire to do it.
Pasquale Bottiglieri | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Going Green
Excellent point. Native Americans treated the earth as a God. They believed that all of their life was lived “from” the land. They did not just show respect, they honored it and held it in high esteem with chants and dances.
They lived off the land and let the land be the judge of how well they preserved it. We gave up so much when we persecuted them and fought to take their land away, in hindsight, I wonder, how many see what a huge mistake we made. I guess many did, or else they would not have received “restitution”, for what was taken from them.
It is a shame we see so much in hindsight, maybe if we spent more time collecting knowledge about the environment and studying the history, we would find greater solutions than we have today.
Everything Native Americans ate or used, came from the land, maybe we should be asking them how to preserve the environment, how to slow global waring, how to find other sources of energy, and also food.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Why should it be free
The comments that make an analogy between charity and going green are troubling. Companies doing their part to maintain a livable planet are substantially different from companies donating to the local SPCA or Boys and Girls Club (those both should be supported).
Even the more subtle point that making a distinct surcharge is problematic doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. Many companies are currently adding fuel surcharges to their bills. So ask yourself, would you rather pay a surcharge that reflects our poor management of resources thus far or a surcharge that, if followed by more companies, might actually begin to address our problems related to fossil fuel consumption?
Randy Yale | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Why should it be free
I do not think anyone is making an analogy between charity and going green. The word contribution is used as “action,” although most of these organizations are privately funded. Of course we would want to see companies change the use of our current resources and expect to pay additional surcharges for that to take place, and it should only be toward a solution to our fossil fuel consumption. But, let’s not let rhetoric by people like this guy, who makes a living by suggesting that “global warming is a scam and is being manipulated by the government,” http://icecap.us/index.php/go/joes-blog/comments_about_global_warming/
lead people in the wrong direction. All I am saying is that we should be looking for alternative resources, adapt the resources we have now to use less, and to educate others to the only direction that will save this planet, and we should be willing to take responsibility “and take on additional surcharges” to get it done.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Going Green: Corporations
Several years ago, while an undergraduate student in Management Science, I wrote a paper for a Society and Technology course titled “Hindsight: In refutation of the John Henry Syndrome”. In that paper, written somewhere around 1974, I made the statement that the corporations, most of them with multi-national roots, had demonstrated little or no allegiance to any purpose or set of values other than the expansion of their own power and financial strength. I used the term corporate molecule to describe individuals who had completely immersed themselves in a corporate system.
In short, the corporations, taken collectively had then and have the power now to do far more harm and, conversely, good to the environment than any individual. True, we as citizens can talk together and collectively do a lot of good but, on balance, our effect is overshadowed by decisions made behind closed corporate doors.
The term corporation somehow suggests a living system, a collective, profit centered system. The term corpus implies a humanization of a large scale collective cognitive process that we are now demanding must have a conscience, must be held to the same ethical values that individuals must adhere to.
In short, in my opinion the greatest good can be achieved in the matter of “Going green” if we all, corporations included take sufficient environmentally healing measures to balance our environmental impact. Having said that, I see no harm in our accepting reasonable and just costs and/or surcharges attached to commodities we need provided we have the absolute assurance that the corporations supplying those goods and services are also doing their share in cleaning up their act especially where abject pollution is concerned.
I draw the line however at asking the consumer to pay now for the avarice, greed and abject lack of conscience of those corporations that knowingly and for extended periods of time allowed their processes to continue to corrupt and pollute the earth. I advise pass through liability in those cases and applaud the legal action of those agencies dedicated to bringing those corporate entities to justice.
Pasquale Bottiglieri | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Going Green Corporations
I bow to your foresight. I completely agree that the corporations should be accountable to consumers to show that what they have committed to, and we have consented to contribute to their cost increase, is legally monitored. There should be in place, a legal system to monitor the commitments made by corporations and to protect the contribution of the consumer.
These are the kind of conditions that end up on the cutting room floor, when it comes to monitoring the commitments of corporations, which is one of the reasons why we are having this discussion…still, or again.
The legal systems that monitor big business are lax, and unfortunately, usually overlooked. But, that is a long standing condition. The recovery of our planet depends on something pro-active, taking place yesterday, but will still remain unmonitored for the period of time it takes to put a system in place that the consumer has faith in, and that usually takes so long that, again, the matter is put on the back burner.
How can we accelerate the necessary fail safes to bring about the results we so desperately need to save the planet? Oh, wait…is that where we started? Catch 22.
AnnMarie Cunniff | 1 year, 7 months ago
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"Going green" Cleaning business
Hello to everyone! I have a budding cleaning business and I wanted to share my thoughts about paying extra or not for “green” businesses. As I perused the web concerning the best cleaners to use for my business, I came to the conclusion that it is in everyone’s best interest, whether they realize it or not, to use products that are environmentally safe. I am choosing to go “green” with my cleaning business after doing my homework. However, I also realize that the cost of “green” cleaners can be more costly. In my business, I supply the cleaning products, not just the labor. I have to say that I will have to adjust my prices for the additional cost of the products. I truly believe that if a person is truly concerned about the environment, he or she will be willing to take on the financial burden if it applies. In other words, I feel that, in an effort to put to a halt or reverse environmental dangers, we all need to take the burden financially, not just the businesses themselves. We are all responsible for our environment, we should all share in the cost of a cleaner, safer environment.
Christina Wasniski | 1 year, 7 months ago
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To add to my last post
After reading practically all the posts entered about who should take on the financial burden of businesses that are choosing or have chosen to “go green,” I want to add something to my previous post. I have just started a cleaning business and am choosing to “go green” with my business. Although, I feel that it is the responsibility of all to use safer, cleaner products for the sake of our planet and generations to come and that all need to take on the financial burden of doing so; I also feel the responsibility to give my customers the “lowdown” of what I am charging for. As I previously stated in my earlier post, the cleaning products that I need to purchase for my business in order to be a “green” business are generally more costly than non-environmentally safe products. A consumer should always be informed of what they are being billed for and why. As a business owner, I will not leave my customers “in the dark” as they have a choice as to whom they do business with. I have a moral responsibility to the environment and to my customers. I truly believe that all of us, to some degree, are responsible for the condition of our environment. In our country, we all have choices, as consumers and as business owners. So where does the cost of going “green” begin?
Christina Wasniski | 1 year, 7 months ago
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Going Green
This is an election year and, perhaps, our combined voices may have an effect on the minds and hearts of the people we put in power. While I am preparing to speak out on this context of life issue, I intend to visit the Amish and learn from them and the many other available resources how to live off the land, how to care for and use the mules I am hoping to buy someday, how to remember what it is like to be virtually free of modern technology and dependent upon the very environment our high tech culture has placed in a secondary position.
There are a great many corporate molecules out there who vacation in the mountains and enjoy a two week rejuvenation but who are not yet big enough to put their jobs and careers on the line to protect what we still have.
That’s big talk but I can honestly say I walked the walk in my life and paid the price.
Pasquale Bottiglieri | 1 year, 7 months ago
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