And here she goes again…
Another Portland design event brings another set of thoughts and, likely, questions. I’d like to start by climbing to the highest rooftop I can find, so I can do my shout from the rooftops rant. But instead, I’ll settle for this metaphorical rooftop I have here.
This story will begin and end with grapes. That’s right—grapes.
Last night I attended an open house at Portland’s Leftbank Project, a cool revamp of a 1923 building originally designed by architect A.E. Doyle. In theory, I’m a supporter of the building and its purpose: to connect and support mission-driven businesses in an inspiring environment, and to do so in an ecologically responsible way. But based on my recent post about The GreenVille Project—one of Leftbank’s tenants—one could say I’m a bit leery of what this “mission-driven” concept sometimes means.
I was hanging out in the office of dc202 design collective, and became privy to a conversation that really threw me for a loop. One of dc202’s neighbors (a Leftbank tenant) came by and started grilling a dc202 employee about their sustainability practices. I guess it’s fine to ask the questions, but here’s where it turned strange:
Apparently, there was a question posed about where the grapes dc202 was feeding its guests came from. As in, the neighborly tenant thought it necessary to remark on the large size of said grapes and therefore, the fact that they probably weren’t from the local farmer’s market. No, sorry people, the grapes were from Costco.
Oh, how I hate that I have to repeat myself from a previous post, but:
Really?!?!
Again, let’s not get caught up in the details, folks. Before we start nit-picking about grapes, we’ve got to think about the bigger picture here. Sorry, but local farmer’s market grapes will do nary a thing to save the world. Yeah, yeah, I get it that all those little actions add up to a greater whole. I’m not completely oblivious to this concept.
But for the sake of point-making, how about I call attention to another silly sustainability detail from last night: the PLA “biodegradable” corn cups used to serve wine. I could go on and on about the fact that the term biodegradable is awfully generous, given the process required for these cups to biodegrade, and the lack of availability of said processes. I could rant about the fact that most people don’t have access to the required commercial composting system—and that these cups can’t be recycled—so more often than not end up in landfills, or contaminating recycled traditional plastics. I could go on for hours about the fact that these cups are made from genetically modified corn, and that the epidemic agribusiness of corn growth is extremely harmful to the environment—by using excessive amounts of insecticides and herbicides, and contributing to soil erosion and water pollution.
Yes, I could do all of that. And for the sake of illustrating my point, I just did. But the real point I’d like to make here is that if we all can’t get off of our sustainability high-horses and stop this nit-picking about silly details, we’re never going to get anywhere.
News flash: the problem is much bigger and much deeper than grapes or corn cups.
I guess what it comes down to for me is this:
Are grapes and corn cups really worth fighting over?
I’m beginning to feel that sustainability—a word I’m starting to despise—has just become another way for people to express their superiority, their virtuosity, their perceived willingness to do the right thing. It’s another topic to fight about, and most of the arguments are truly futile.
I waver between feeling that there is hope for change, and feeling that we should all just do the best we can, and most importantly—live and let live. Because really, if we aren’t willing to seriously tackle the root of this problem, which in my opinion is over-population, chances of any major turn-around in the state of our environment are slim to none.
So let’s just stop with the sour grapes, please.
Defy Rules 