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My past two blogs have talked about how companies are using the term green to make more money without actually being green. This post is no different. As I was exploring the internet and the vast amount of articles about green and greenwashing, I ran across a site that goes one step further and shows how corporations are getting around regulations and getting to call themselves green. The interactive site on MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18288820/) puts you in the driver’s seat to make the decisions for an industrial type of company. It gives the overview of how emissions credits work, the regulations, and the typical techniques to make sure your company does not go over. Getting to play with this simulator gives a graphical representation of how a company has the ability to abuse the system in order to look good to the community. It brings to the forefront that it is very much our responsibility as citizens to watch for this kind of misuse of the law and take action no matter how small we may think it is.
In order to know what we can do as individuals or as a small group, we first must understand and learn what we can do to make small differences in the world. It is not about going out and spewing the word of green wherever we are; it is make the small differences and leading by example. One fun and simple way to learn is by visiting Green My Brain (http://greenmybrain.com/ ) and playing the online game. The game is a way to inform people what they can do to make the small differences in the world that eventually makes the big differences. A public broadcasting company recently received a grant to develop a green game for kids. Though I feel this is yet another part of greenwashing, and with this it is starting at bottom rung of society, it is at least being acknowledged that it is important to teach children the little things they can do in their own lives to make the world a better place for their future.

-Josh R

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