Couple of years ago, I got a request to contribute airline miles to help soldiers coming home from active duty. Apparently the government only paid for tickets to a US gateway and they were expected to pay for the flight home from there. So, basically the miles would help them buy a domestic ticket. As I started to, I remembered from all my international travel that the domestic portion usually added a small amount - between $ 50 to 100 - to an international fare. I would happily pay that in cash for a deserving soldier, but no - the airlines wanted me to use miles for a free ticket at what the industry would value at $ 625. I have seen similar requests to send calling cards to soldiers. But look at the rates per minute on those cards.
What's this got to do with Green Computing? I see growing moral pressure from vendors for companies to adopt more environmentally friendly products. But those products are typically premium priced. Then you have the issue of greenwashing.
Look, everyone wants to do good by Mother Nature, but do not just sucker the consumer to bear all the cost.
I think you make an important point -- a collapse in consumer confidence is a huge risk to a market led approach to sustainability. Consumers need to be sure that the premium is producing the promised affect. But paying extra for environmentally sensitive production methods and fair labour conditions is a mark of quality worth a premium in my view.
On the other hand environmental pollution has always been costs external to the enterprise. We cannot afford to view the proper realisation of these costs as a societal cost whetrher they are piucked up the state, the enterprise, the consumer or all three.
Posted by: James Farrar | January 27, 2008 at 04:15 PM