Greenfest Chicago Followup: Silverleaf Resorts Snookered Organizers to Promote Timeshare Resort with Cruiseship Giveaway

What a week! I have felt down-right journalistic these past few days as I’ve poked and prodded my way though a story that first popped up during Chicago Greenfest a few weeks back; a story about Silverleaf Resorts, a very-NOT-green timeshare company giving away an even-less-green Cruise vacation smack in the middle of Greenfest Chicago.

We got their main booth rep Michael Stevens on camera saying that there was nothing green about Silverleaf Resorts or their promotion, that they were there “talking to all the people that love green”, and that they were just “marketing for our resort”. I was given a rambling, semi-incoherent answer to my very simple question “how are you green?” that wandered into the absurd. Apparently, in Silverleaf Resorts world, having 300 acres of land makes you Green.

You can read the original post here, watch the video for the full dirt:

After I got back from Chicago, I started zipping around emails to the two main orgs behinds Greenfest Global Exchange, Co-op America, and their PR firm Organic Works Marketing for an explanation on how Silverleaf Resorts got their booth. Did someone at Greenfest drop the ball in the screening process? Did Silverleaf “mis-represent” themselves in the application process?

It turned out to be a little of both- a small dash of the first and a heaping measure of the latter. Jim Kinsella of Silverleaf Resorts snookered to the organizers of Greenfest. Someone at Silverleaf Resorts verbally told the Greenfest screeners that they had two sites that were built with green materials and practices. I have yet to find any evidence of anything green from Silverleaf Resorts and they have failed to respond to my request for comment/clarification. But it’s clear that whoever was in charge of screening the Silverleaf Resorts application was too trusting and didn’t do the necessary footwork needed to verify their green claims.

Silverleaf Resorts promised the screeners that they would only exhibit information about one of their green facilities and made no mention of the cruise give-away.

During the Friday setup, the Greenfest Floor Manager didn’t see the giant Cruise banner SIlverleaf Resorts later put up and apparently didn’t do a walk through on either Saturday or Sunday, when I saw it up behind their booth.

If I had to wager, I’d guess that most of the exhibitors at Greenfest fall squarely into the Kind Greenie category of people. They’re mostly nice crunchy kind folks who don’t try to lie and cheat on their exhibitor application. I can see how it’d be easy for the organizers of Greenfest to get complacent.

I hope this serves as a wake up call to the great people running Greenfest. There are lots of Jim Kensellas and Silverleaf Resorts in the world and more of them will be trying to get into our space. Don’t make it easy for them- they’re welcome when they actually green themselves up, in the meantime we’ve got to keep beating them back down.

Rooting Out The Non-Green Booth at Greenfest Chicago: Timeshares, and Cruises, and Greenwash… Oh My!

I spent the last weekend in Chicago meeting up with the rest of the EarthFirst crew (they are in Chicago, I’m in Maine) and attending Greenfest. This year the event was held on the lake on the Navy Pier and I rolled into the event on Saturday to scout out things ahead of our planned Sunday shoot.

I was looking for things to riff off- any out of place companies or greenwashed marketing pitches, something that makes you think of that Seasame Street song “One of these things is not like the other…”.

It didn’t take me long to stumble on the holy grail of the Greenfest Greenwash, or should I say- the un greenwash. The people at this booth were either too stupid or too lazy to even throw a coat of green paint on.

The culprits: Silverleaf Resorts, a big ol’ timeshare resort corporation. They have resorts and facilities in six states and have thousands of acres of resorts, big ass hotel and event facilities, and even a waterpark in their portfolio. There is absolutely zero about them that is green. Zip, zilch, nada, nothing.

Silverleaf Resorts was at Greenfest to give away a Cruise vacation in exchange for giving them your contact info. The last I checked, modern cruise ships are big floating dirty cities that discharge their waste directly into the ocean, burn up scads of fossil fuels, and bring wandering, camera toting hoards to ecologically sensitive places all over the world.

So let me get this right- some very non-green company was in the middle of freakin’ Greenfest, promoting a ‘couldn’t be less green’ prize giveaway.

And their booth was mobbed!

W. T. F.

When I first found their booth I asked them what they did as a company to be green. One of the ladies behind the booth started prattling on about how they have 1,000 acres of land.

Yeah, and….

That was it, they have 1,000 acres of land. That was green to her. Then she stammered around saying something about CFL bulbs and reusable shopping bags. I got the distinct impression that it might have been the first time she had heard the term “green” in this context.

When we came back to Greenfest on Sunday with our camera crew, we set off to hunt them down and ask them what the fsck they were doing at Greenfest. Here’s what we came up with, enjoy the video:

Like our hipster host Jacob said, I hope Silverleaf Resorts does not show up at Greenfest next year. If we find them, I can’t promise we won’t unleash our full armament of green snark and sarcasm. It could get messy.

Pranking on The Coal Industry: NRDC Spoofs “America’s Power”

The good folks over at NRDC have taken America’s Power website (Coal Industry Front) and added a varnish of truth to it for today’s Prankstivities.

Before:

After:

Coal is the Enemy of Mankind. Anyone who rips on the purveyors of humanity’s destruction is good in my book. Nice Work NRDC! Swing over and check out their spin.

Thanks to Michael for sending this one over.

Links [Evil Coal Baron Fronted Shill Group] & [Fun Loving Green Pranksters Spoof Page]

Vanity Fair’s Greenwashed Cover: There’s Nothing Green About Madonna

Why the fizuck is Madonna on the cover of the latest green Vanity Fair issue? She’s a wrinkly ol’ piece of plastic ass with a bigger environmental footprint than many small African nations. Blech.

Link [Ecorazzi]

A $360 Cardboard Bag Coated with Water-Resistant Spray with a Leather Handle is NOT Green

Ecorazzi cued me into a nice bit of high end greenwashing flim flamery. Actor Colin Firth opened a green store in London last year selling Fair Trade and ethical fare and will be selling this, a $360 high end bag made from cardboard.

It’s sprayed with a water proofing coating and has a fat piece of leather for a strap. Designer Giles Miller has the balls call it green because it uses cardboard sources from sustainably harvested trees.

Adding a scoop of shit to a bowl of ice cream does not make for a tasty treat, especially if you charge near $400 for it. I have no problem with stupidly expensive celebrity swag that’s actually green, but if these fashionistas are going to pull out the eco label they should at least make sure it’s actually environmentally friendly.

I guess I’m not expecting much when it comes to someone like Giles Miller, but Colin Firth should know better. This isn’t his first foray into green business and he should know better than to try to cop off this piece of greenwash as worthy of being sold in his store.

Link [Ecorazzi]

EcoGeek Kills “Clean Coal” Ad and Calls Them Out for the Greenwash

Hank Green is my hero for the day. For those of you who don’t know Mr. Green, he’s the brains and geek behind EcoGeek- the authoritative green technology blog on the net. Hank and I have been blogging pals for the past few years and I’ve even done a bit of writing for his site.

Today Hank woke up to find an ad on his site from the Clean Coal Lobby, sitting pretty right at the top spot. He didn’t waste any time killing that shit and wanted to let the Clean Coal people know why he did. It’s a gem:

No…you’re not green. You’re full of crap.

Your industry turns mountains inside out, poisons the water of the rural poor in America and throughout the world. Your industry has never made an environmental move in its long and storied history without being forced to by a government. The promotional video for ‘clean coal’ at your lame PR site lauds a carbon sequestration plant that has now been canceled because it was determined to be pretty much impossible. The cleanest coal plants in the world still create more sulfer dioxide than the environment can deal with without acidifying the rain and the soil.

Of course, the future is in sequestering carbon, right? Pumping it into the ground so that it never hits the atmosphere. The problem is, building a sequestered carbon coal plant is actually more expensive than building a solar thermal plant. Why would we stick with you when solar is revving up to be cheaper than coal without expensive, unrealistic sequestration?

The only thing that makes you seem even a little green today is how extremely destructive you used to be. You cannot be, you will never be, green. Give up…go home…enjoy the next few decades because they will be your last.

We’re moving on without you, and you’re going to have to deal with that. Actual clean technologies are here now. We don’t need you anymore. There are 45 gigawatts of renewable energy planned for the United States. You are not renewable…you are not America’s Power…you are not the future and you sure as hell aren’t green. Stop pretending.

Sincerely,

Hank Green and the EcoGeek Team

Rock on Hank!

(In case you’re wondering, if we ever get a Clean Coal ad here on EarthFirst we’ll do the same as Hank but will probably drop a few more F bombs than he did.)

Link [EcoGeek]

China’s Brilliant Reforesting Scheme: Paint The Hillside Green

China is joining Tara Reid in going Green, but their definition of Green is “coat an entire hillside with oil based green paint.” A town in Southwest China requested their government green up an exposed hillside overlooking their town. They wanted them to plant some grasses and bushes to vegetate the slope. In a brilliant stroke of Chinese Govermentism, $60,000 of green paint (think Sherman Williams) and labor was spread out on the hillside.

It kind of looks like an exposed Kryptonite vein. Blech.

Link [Solve Climate]

Memo to Bush: Distributing the 2,220 Page Budget in PDF Format is NOT Green

Want to hear a good joke? George Bush’s $3 trillion budget is “green”.

Not because it budgets funds to support the growth of renewable energy. Not because it removes the subsidies gas and oil companies receive. And not because it tightens regulations over toxic chemicals.

No, it’s “green” because they didn’t print it out. This year they are skipping out on printing the 2,200 page budget and passing it around to Congress and journalists in PDF format.

I’m not surprised in the least bit. Bush has pretty much made it his administrations signature move to do very stupid things and then to lie about it. This one is a pretty minor bit compared to Iraq, warrent-less wire tapping, and everything Dick Cheney does.

339 Days, 15 Hours, and 9 Minutes left in the Bush Administration…

Link [Ecogeek]

The Eco Button Offers Easy Greenwashed Sleep Mode

Check out this piece of greenwashed crap —>
That is the Eco Button, a self-proclaimed “green” product that you plug into your computer to allow you to put your computer into sleep mode with a touch of the big ugly button.

Problem is, you already can now put your computer to sleep with a touch of a button, your mouse button. How hard is to put your comptuer to sleep? If you have a Mac you can even make one of the corners of your screen a hotspot to auto drop it into sleep, making a snoozing computer a flick of the wrist away.

How much energy and materials were burned through to make the Eco Button? How much plastic, how much paper used in packaging and logistics, how much gas burned to ship it around from factory to store? This thing is a green washed turd of a product. Two thumbs and a toe down.

Link [EcoGeek] & [BoingBoing Gadgets]

A Green Wal-Mart? Not So Fast…

Ah Wal-Mart, the giant behemoth of a corporation, with a larger GDP than most countries and a matching environmental footprint to boot. Sure, they’ve been making noise about going eco-friendly and some blogs have fallen all over themselves to grace them with the mantle of green, but we’re still talking about a company with over 7,000 (and growing) stadium sized stores that makes most of their money selling tons of cheap plastic crap shipped over from China.

Alex Goldschmidt, online editor at Wal-Mart Watch, does a good job of killing the golden calf that is a green Wal-Mart in a guest essay at Grist titled But three of its stores have skylights. How bad could it be?. Here’s a snip, head over and read the whole thing, it’s really good.

Wal-Mart’s public relations efforts help hide the fact that despite all its talk, the company isn’t any greener than it was in 2005 when it laid out a series of company-wide environmental initiatives. The fact remains that Wal-Mart’s energy use is still rising. Until the company significantly reduces the amount of energy used to earn a dollar, its sustainability initiatives remain fundamentally flawed. Several aspects of the company’s basic business model hinder this kind of comprehensive change:

Land consumption and pollution. With the average Wal-Mart Supercenter the size of a football stadium, and parking lots often three times that size, each Wal-Mart store consumes massive amounts of land and the parking lots contribute to water pollution. Multiply that by over 7,000 Wal-Mart stores worldwide, and plans to build hundreds more every year. Wal-Mart frequently chooses to build new stores rather than renovate old ones, multiplying its impact on local land resources.

Car culture. To shop at Wal-Mart stores, consumers must drive cars. Wal-Mart has contributed to a jump of more than 40 percent in the amount of vehicle-miles American households travel for shopping purposes since 1990. Studies also show that larger stores, such as Wal-Mart, pull customers from a larger geographic area, which results in increased traffic — a 200,000 square-foot Supercenter, on average, generates over 10,000 car trips during a weekday, and even more on the weekend. Increased traffic results in increased carbon emissions.

Energy consumption. We applaud Wal-Mart’s efforts to cut energy use in some stores, but the company has a long way to go. Every few years Wal-Mart opens a few greener stores and hundreds of its traditional, energy-draining stores. While Wal-Mart hopes to make its existing stores 20 percent more efficient by 2013, the energy used by the hundreds of new stores it opens every year will significantly offset any savings and its carbon footprint will only grow larger.

So the take away here is that despite Wal-Mart’s admirable efforts to spin itself green, they remain a vastly unsustainable company with a grossly unsustainable business model. in short- Wal-Mart still sucks.

Link [Gristmill]

The Cadillac Escalade Hybrid is Big Pile of Greenwashed Steel

Inhabitat points out the very long stretch of the imagination it takes to call the Cadillac Escalade Hybrid that NY Giants QB Eli Manning won in the Super Bowl “green”. We’re talking about a giant beast of an SUV that only pulls 18 miles per gallon of gas.

Excuse me, but WTF. Since when is 18 MPG green? Sure, it’s greener than the normal Escalade, but that’s not saying much- kind of like saying Nicky is the less trashy Hilton sister.

Here’s what Inhabitat has to say…

The hybrid SUV is a classic example of the “how much is good enough” issue inherent to so much of corporations’ going green efforts. Okay, so the Escalade is greenER, but isn’t this really just a green marketing spin on a bigger issue? Should we applaud GM for even making such efforts or scold them for their continuous production of such an unnecessarily large and inefficient vehicle? The fact that it’s given as the prize for winning America’s biggest sporting event is even more troubling- we’re essentially sending the message that the best reward is misrepresented, irresponsible luxury.

I suppose the silver lining is that Eli Manning chose the hybrid SUV from a variety of Cadillacs. The Hybrid Escalade, which will be available later this year, was Eli’s “responsible” choice, however clouded in materialism it may have been. “I know it comes out in the summer. I want the first one.”

Link [Inhabitat]