Faith-Based Commerce

I find the ascent of environmentalism as religion in the past few years a phenonmenon worth marveling at and blogging about (again for you die hard readers out there). It's a religion that's growing with the collective power of many mediums coming together on its behalf-it's delicious and makes me want to jump in and be a part somehow!

I recently found this banner on Gaiam's site. A partial apology for the trees that are your box? The airplane carrying your gifts to you? It's that odd half step as we scratch our heads and try to figure out footprints, impacts and just what the hell it means to have this many billion people on the planet.

Other examples on my radar of similar initiatives include the Boulder, CO-based Viva Terra. There are others who are not bothering to tie into commerce. Redeem yourself by purchasing individual green credits at: http://www.terrapass.com/.

It seems downright in vogue for all kinds of organizations to start offering ways to "offset your lifestyle." Sounds like another version of original sin to me? But who played Eve- Henry Ford?

This repackaging of environmental values must be a huge hit for drawing attention to a business. As the conscious greens breed forth and multiply, we can only hope our children's children will be on the hunt for that "perpetually receding" environmental footprint. Organizations like Better World Club are poised to make a killing on redeeming the sins of travel. But what does it take to happen en masse? Can you imagine what would happen if suddenly, a tenth of the world population began demanding only organic food?

Tangent: Ethical Corporation Magazine recently reported on George Soros who addressed the matter of corporate responsibility being at odds with bottom-line earnings. What Soros alleges flies in the face of examples Al Gore presents to us in his documentary, An Inconvenient Truth.

Can we, the followers of this new faith, find compassion for each other as we each progress at our own pace of becoming aware of the impact we have around us?