You may have missed the GREENFAIR blog post on Hart of Green on Monday about how green my soul has become following my fellowship with the movers and shakers of the green movement.  Every vendor was incredible, and not in that fake American way, rather, very ecologically aware companies who at the core, are trying to become even greener.

As I was checking out all of the vendors lines of eco-friendly products, they were beaming with pride because this year’s line had double the offerings of last years’ line and wasn’t that exciting? Except, I pointed out, at the core of any decent eco-philosophy is one fundamental fact: less is more.

Hey, I’m very thrilled to be buying eco-friendly products.  I almost bought a lawn mower that’s battery operated. Then, I realized I have no lawn, so, there went that gorgeous Husqvarna’s four thousand dollar solar-powered automatic robotic lawn mower. Too expensive for anything green in my life, and by the way, there were many more options for much less than 4K to whack my weeds and manicure a green garden.

Similarly, there are now 38 different kinds of eco-friendly toothpaste available at my local health food store and not one of them comes in biodegradable packaging.

More choices means whatever more their building, well that takes energy. It takes space to store and, if refrigeration is involved, it takes energy to store. It takes more trucks to drive it to more retailers. It takes more advertising to spread the word. It takes and it takes and it takes.

Quick digression:
A steady-state economy is an idea that entered the world in 1956, courtesy of Novel Prize winning economist Robert Solow, but became a fixture in the modern lexicon in 1977, courtesy of ecological economist Herman Daly.

It’s nothing more or less than an economy that meets everyone’s need and holds steady. It values sustainability over growth, choosing to balance resource use with resource availability. Above all, it values economies of scale.

It is an economy of scale for one simple reason: resources are not infinite. And until they are then anything new that you make is a trade-off and any time you make that trade off one fact is indisputable: the earth suffers.

If now we know that psychologically more is not always better, and environmentally we know that less is always more, then why do we keep making all this stuff?

Why have most of the top Green eco-magazines, blogs, become nothing more than a greener version of QVC or Home Shopping Network?

I want to see leaders in green who embrace the fact that we as a green community all share one common goal; doing our best to be green.

I can start by doing my part right here on Hart of Green and learn from my colleagues all launching green this and green that. I promise you not to stage advertisements disguised as copy or patronize you with what we call advertorials; advertisement meets editorial.

Or, convey a really meaningful message on this blog requesting your precious time and then, only 1/2 way through your experiencee, I jump off the page and say “ONLY TWO MORE OF THESE IN THE BACK, AND THE DEADLINE IS MIDNIGHT TONIGHT - TICK TICK TICK…give me a break!

I am seriously humbled when I get a chance to connect with you and you generously give your vote of confidence that I will not abuse my green credentials and the priveldge of your frequent visits to Hart of Green.