Arrived: The Inevitable Green Backlash

Recent front page news on my iGoogle gives me more current foretelling of the inevitable backlash against Green. I suppose that's how you know a movement has gained enough momentum or "critical mass" to have legitimately arrived- when critics start cropping up and saying, "Yeah, but..."

I'll always come back to the Michael Crooke comment, "It's not enough to be eco-groovy." It's not a justification of lower standards on what defines "green" improvement but an admission that we'll take incremental steps- each supported by a viable business model- on our way to being truly green.

Still, it's worth checking out the flipside:

Fast Company ponders whether carbon offsets are a cop-out and then concludes, "Ditch the guilt. You aren't a sinner for buying offsets."

Better still, Fast Company explores the commercial exploitation of LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) and concludes with Rob Watson's (the "father" of LEED) statement that it's time to "redouble our efforts" in defining LEED. Great story by Anya Kamenetz

Inc., currently my favorite business rag, astutely (ahem) surveys job seekers and finds they are none too concerned about the green-ness of their employees. (By the way, Seth Godin puts surveys in their proper perspective.)

And BusinessWeek's Ben Elgin uncovers green corporate pioneer Auden Schendler's mounting frustration in the crusade to make "corporate sustainability" both a good and a profitable thing, with his employer, the Aspen Skiing Company, as his living lab.

PS: Great magazines like Fast Company and Inc. are ALL OVER Green (see Fast Company's 50 Ways To Green Your Business , also this month), so the stories above are really nothing more than objective counterpoints to one of their favorite topics.