Cashing in on Green Hype

Like a dog on a leash, the Rutland Herald dutifully ran a story on Friday about a little laundromat that's going to save the environment.  Seems the owner of  Washbuckler's Laundromat intends to “…significantly offset our dependency on propane” by installing a few solar hot water heaters. We're told it's all financially sound and that the proprietor expects a four year return on the $25,000 investment with “state and federal credits” of course.  What the rate of return would be without these credits one can only imagine.  Regardless, the actual direct return doesn’t really matter because it probably has nothing to do with why the solar panels were installed.

The bigger story the Herald missed is that a lot of the businesses going-green these days aren’t expecting a direct return on investment at all. Had the folks at the Herald followed the news this week they’d have know there’s a growing trend of businesses using ‘Green Hype’ to get free publicity which is exactly what the Herald gave to this laundromat. Indeed, the business owner interviewed in the Newsweek story as much as admitted the solar panels he installed on his car wash “provide[s] only enough juice to run the shop's refrigerators and lights.” He further elaborated that, “to run my main motors, I'd need a city block of solar panels.” But he's not going to buy a city block of solar panels because making electricity has nothing to do with it. He says he "regards them as an effective form of advertising because of the image we are trying to maintain and create." 

Makes you wonder how much of the environmental movement is about image over substance.

 

 

Comments

[Gregg Ballou]

C'mon Greg what's the big deal? the whole state of VT exists on the same premise.