Outsourcing nature

The development of more efficient, environment-friendly goods just might be a lesson in futility, at least when it comes to certain so-called white goods. When producing an environment-friendly product, a manufacturer should conduct a life-cycle assessment (LCA) to determine the environmental impact of the product from cradle-to-grave. For white goods, like refrigerators, clothes washers and dryers and air conditioners (the big 3), as you can probably imagine, the potential environmental impact is considerable. Social pressure and the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) movement might push companies toward "greener" practices, and intensified media coverage of human influence on global climate change might encourage more consumers to actively seek out a more efficient fridge or maintain frugal A/C settings, the question still remains, "how buddy-buddy can a clothes dryer and a tree get?"

Maybe a better question is to ask the wind how it feels about us essentially outsourcing its job to a machine. My point is, no matter how efficient some items become, they won't be as environmentally friendly as that which nature has provided itself. But, try as we may, unless a product is actually beneficial to the environment, it is less "friendly" and more an opposing force than anything. When manufacturers conduct LCA analysis, they consider everything "from cradle", i.e. the extraction of raw materials from the ground, "to grave", i.e. the disassembly process or, more likely in most places, the landfill costs. All the while the wind blows and watches as we ignore one of its services, at no cost.

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.