Green Consumerism: Helping or Hurting?

Store shelves today are full of greener versions of everyday products. From organic cotton clothes to non-toxic cleaning solutions and compostable forks there seems to be an environmentally friendly alternative for everything one could need.

Still, many argue that the greenest product is the one that is never purchased.

In Walmart and Sustainability – Oxymoron, Salvation, or Both? Bill Baue from Sea Change discussed this issue of saving the world through consumerism.  Most people fall into three camps, said Baue.

“The “oxymoron” camp.  They believe Walmart’s business model of overdriven underpaid factory workers pumping out cheap goods into thousand-mile supply chains that feed a consumption-based society inherently and unavoidably conflicts with sustainability.

The “salvation” camp.  They welcome Walmart using its market muscle as a “bully pulpit” to push sustainability advances from the top down — which arguably produces more change quicker than grassroots, bottom-up sustainability initiatives.

And then there’s the rest of us.  We see truth in both of these two contradictory ideas.”

We want to hear your thoughts on this discussion. Join in below!

Elizabeth Ulion is a graduate student at Northwestern. She stands on the less is more side of this discussion