GroovyGreen.com – Start Today :: Save Tomorrow

Every year, I go to the Green Festival in San Francisco. This time, I was hoping to find some interesting material to report on in my blog. Getting there was quite a feat. Since I was going with four other people, we had decided against the train, in favor of the car. The traffic to access was simply horrendous. I finally gave up trying to find street parking, and had to part with $20 at the public parking lot across the street.

I recognized my friend Dominique’s Adina bus parked in front of the festival. Right away, I felt at home. My other two friends were late to meet me, so I had plenty of opportunities to observe the scene at the entrance. Lots of dusty shoes, organic cottons, and earthy colors. I felt a bit out of place with my J Crew raincoat, and Robert Clergerie shoes. Legacy from a fashionable past, that is still very much a part of me. Petitioners of all sorts were competing for my signature. I gladly added my name to the Sustainable Farming list. One man tried to explain why I should care about Eminent Domain. Should I? My friends showed up finally, we got our official green bracelet in exchange for personal information about ourselves. I wonder what they do with the information. Does the festival sell it to marketers?

The Exhibition Hall was packed with booths, hundreds of them, all trying to sell us something. Soap, teas, books, T-shirts, fair trade scarves, renewable energies, TV shows, food, chocolate, lunch boxes, jewelry, cars, bikes, social networks, magazines, alpaga coats, pet food, seeds, toys, travels, cell phones, salad bowls, . . . and a lot more I can’t remember. I came to make connections with people in the green social network space, and also to visit Dominique at the Adina booth. Soon, though, I got caught in a sampling frenzy, my hands full of flyers, and magazines of all sorts. What to do with all the stuff? I could only hold so much. I started thinking, I should have brought a bag. But then, I had not come here expecting to collect so much. That’s when I noticed the crowd around the PG&E lady. I quickly grabbed one of the free canvas bags she was handing out. Now I was free to resume my chase for more goodies.

As I made my way through the festival, a light went on in my head. More important than all the green words being uttered, and the green products and services being promoted, was the consumerist subtext for the whole event. Consuming has become such a part of our cultural fabric, that there is really no way around it. Trying to get people to consume less is a doomed enterprise. A more successful strategy is to help redirect consumption towards greener alternatives. This makes me question the ‘Green Consumer?’ article, I wrote earlier, about green consumer being an oxymoron. I was advocating green citizenry. Now I am thinking the concept of green citizen may be too idealist. Green consumer may be less pure, but a lot more realistic.

[ed note: visit Marguerite at her blog, well worth the read!]