Going Green? Blue Might be Better
April 16, 2008 · Print This Article
So, you feel as if you’re already reducing your carbon footprint in every way possible. Recycling, buying organic produce from the local farmer’s market, taking public transportation and buying fewer disposables. Is it enough? You might think so, but others would disagree: particularly, those who subscribe to the ‘BLUE movement’.
Before you start groaning about color-labeling and wondering what people will come up with for orange, yellow and purple, check out what the BLUE movement is all about.
Here’s how former Sierra Club President Adam Werbach described it to Gristmill:
People who are part of the BLUE movement aspire to make a difference through the people and products that touch their lives. It encompasses green issues like protecting our last wild places and reducing our output of CO2, but it also includes personal concerns like saving money, losing weight, and spending time with friends and family.
The BLUE movement challenges you to improve your life and increase your effectiveness in making the world a better place. It’s not just about living green, it’s about ‘PSP’ or ‘Personal Sustainability Practice’: actions you take regularly that are good for you, the community and the planet. It takes eco-consciousness one step further into the realm of total self-improvement.
People are urged to translate PSP into their every day buying practices, using consumer power to initiate positive change. Revolution starts with the individual, and the BLUE movement wants us all to fight the power one smart purchase at a time.
Seems to me like the BLUE movement is a natural extension of being ‘green’. Anything that might help people vote with their feet - or, more specifically, with their wallets - is a good thing in my book. Be more conscious about what you buy - it’s so simple, and it has the power to spur real change.
Link [Gristmill]
Photo: Flickr user loop_oh
Related Posts:
Slowdown in American Economy Could Be Good for the EnvironmentBuy Nothing but Necessities for a Month
Sierra Club Seeking National Online Organizer to Fight Coal Industry
Woody Harrelson’s First Foray into Environmentalism was Saving Ants
We’re Living in the Age of Consumption
So are “no trans fats!” on a box of cookies going to be “bluewashing”?
Also, it seems like it can’t add up to a “movement” just because it’s so broad. It’s hard to lump deforestation and “spending time with friends…” into the same part of my brain. Seems like it’ll just be dissolved in the mainstream, leaving nothing behind.
It’s the niche interest that builds a community, that then generates a movement. You can’t skip steps.