Our Facebook page has provided a platform for sharing pictures, videos, events, and thoughts. But sometimes we just need more room to elaborate on issues that pop up there. With his permission, we have decided to pull Adam Thada’s recent ‘Wall’ comment into the blog.

Adam shares:

… An accurate carbon footprint takes into account not just direct carbon purchases (gas, electricity) but also other consumer goods that have a carbon history (i.e. almost everything we spend money on). I recently realized that another one of my “products” is my $12/ton going to [offsets]. Yes, some of that money going toward building a windmill in the near-term, but how much of that $12 is going towards NEW carbon sources - electricity to run … computers, gas to move employees around, etc? Even if [the offset company] offsets their own electricity (which creates a fun little circular definition-type problem), what about the paper they print on, even if it’s 100% recycled? What about the other products and services that they demanded b/c of my purchase?

The point you bring up is a good one—even ‘clean’, or low-impact companies rely on some form of ‘dirty’ resource here and there. Nobody gets off the hook ;). As for the scenario where an offset company buys offsets to balance out their unavoidable emissions, this leads to an immediate, and total, system collapse! Not really, I’d imagine most offset companies do this, and since they can buy offsets at cost, the feedback cycle would lose steam.

Now let’s consider what this means on a larger scale.

As per Adam’s point, the purchase of goods and services generally supports—even if indirectly—the further release of carbon emissions somewhere. Point is, a growing business usually equates to a growing environmental footprint; and in general, business in the US is pretty heavy-footed right now. In 2006 alone, over half of total US carbon emissions were attributed to commercial and industrial activities (EPA). Needless to say, we have some reshaping to do, and business (with our help) will need to undergo a truly world-changing shift to cleaner practices when considering our common environmental goals (Check out Al Gore’s recent challenge for the U.S. to run on 100% renewable energy in 10 years—inspiring and daunting).

Consumers get to play an important role here. From supply chains and shipping, to manufacturing and operations, to consumption and waste, companies are increasingly being held accountable for their actions by customers and key stakeholders, and for this, they keep close watch on consumer trends. The restaurant business does this on a daily basis. If the sandwich on the menu is consistently underselling, people probably don’t like it–how about trying something with sushi? If customers don’t tip well, teach the waiting staff some new tricks! It’s easy market research. We vote each day with the purchases we make. We buy from brands we want to see survive, and leave others (and unappealing sandwiches) on the shelf to lag behind or drop out of the competitive marketplace.

The hope is that, on a large enough scale, this supply and demand equation will drive industry-wide trends in green business practices. Joel Makower’s reports in his report,“The State Of Green Business,” that “the trend seems to be getting to zero – zero waste, zero emissions, zero carbon, and more.” But the question remains, will the shift to ‘greener’ business be enough to get us where we need to be?

There’s a lot to talk about on supporting cleaner business practices, and, one of our other sources of inspiration here, climate innovations (maybe an upcoming post). In the meantime, if you find yourself assiduously pawing through social media apps like we do, come visit us on our Facebook page. This post was Facebook Wall-inspired.

-Jake