Little Green Lies

The sweet notion that making a company environmentally friendly can be not just cost-effective but profitable is going up in smoke. Meet the man wielding the torch



Auden Schendler learned about corporate environmentalism directly from the prophet of the movement. In the late 1990s, Schendler was working as a junior researcher at the Rocky Mountain Institute, a think tank in Aspen led by Amory Lovins, legendary author of the idea that by "going green," companies can increase profits while saving the planet. As Lovins often told Schendler and others at the institute, boosting energy efficiency and reducing harmful emissions constitute not just a free lunch but "a lunch you're paid to eat."

Inspired by this marvelous promise, Schendler took a job in 1999 at Aspen Skiing Co., becoming one of the first of a new breed: the in-house "corporate sustainability" advocate. Eight years later, it takes him six hours crisscrossing the Aspen region by car and foot to show a visitor some of the ways he has helped the posh, 800-employee resort blunt its contribution to global warming. Schendler, 37, a tanned and muscular mountain climber, clambers atop a storage shed to point out sleek solar panels on an employee-housing rooftop. He hikes down a stony slope for a view of the resort's miniature power plant, fueled by the rushing waters of a mountain creek. The company features its environmental credentials in its marketing and has decorated its headquarters with green trophies and plaques. Last year Time honored Schendler as a "Climate Crusader" in an article accompanied by a half-page photo of the jut-jawed executive standing amid snow-covered evergreens.

http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_44/b4056001.htm

The escort business is tough. Doesn't matter if you are working a fancy Aspen ski resort, or an upscale Moscone Center convention.

Four years later, FedEx has purchased fewer than 100 hybrid trucks, or less than one-third of one percent of its fleet. At $70,000 and up, the hybrids cost at least 75% more than conventional trucks, although fuel savings should pay for the difference over the 10-year lifespan of the vehicles. FedEx, which reported record profits of $2 billion for the fiscal year that ended May 31, decided that breaking even over a decade wasn't the best use of company capital. "We do have a fiduciary responsibility to our shareholders," says environmental director Mitch Jackson. "We can't subsidize the development of this technology for our competitors."

This pretty much sums up the problem with corporate capitalism. Corporations have a legal responsibility to maximize shareholder profits. Anything done for the common good is only window dressing meant to further increase profits. Quite an interesting article.

for our competitors."

That's right, and it isn't fair. They should all be forced to do it through legislation. When Congress gets a spine...

somebody else spend money and save the world, for a change

That was a great read, even if it was depressing.

The management just could not bring themselves to make long term green investments that had payback periods of 7 or more years. The leaders knew that they could better invest a six figure sum in attractive appointments like leather chairs for the lounge. They somehow "knew" that the chairs would make the customers feel like they were vacationing in a truly superb ski resort. A few placards expressing insulation or waste heat recovery just could not match that.

"knew"

The premise of making a ski area efficient is daunting. All the lodges need heat during the prime season up at 7000 feet where the temperatures are often near zero fahrenheit. Ski lifts take electricity. Snow making takes electricity. An earth friendly approach would be a winter vacation without heating the travel, the heated lodges, the lifts or the snow. I think it's called cross country skiing.

The hillsides are totally denuded and bare 8 months out of the year. :(

Oh, and to elaborate on that, if a timber company left the hillsides that bare, there would be OUTRAGE and they would be in violation of about a brazilian different forest practice rules, but a ski company, somehow that's okay?

Amory Lovins complains about a kettle without a top and then builds his rich boy corporate environmental apologist mega-funded suburban offices in a place to which no one can walk.

I would love to know how many of these offsets are bought and compare them to the number of renewable energy resources there actually are. That would be a hilarious calculation.

I'll bet that Amory Lovins has a free season pass from the Aspen Ski company. He, Jeff Skilling, and Ken Lay must have spent hours having happy chats on the lifts.

It was a critique of the efficacy of renewable energy / sequestration offsets.

I read it as a rare honest statement that little consumer brats like to hear sweet little lies and believe them. I thought that might have something to do with the word "lies" in the title.

Of course, I disagree with the word "little."

One of the more amusing claims is that Walmart is "making progress." Apparently their light bulb aisle makes up for that funny cute little environmental China business.

Thank you for your lesson in reading comprehension, though. I think I'll file it with the rest of your lessons.