'Epson Goes Green' (Color Me Clueless)

About once a day, I'm slapped in the face with some bit of reality or another. Sometimes, it's someone from a major corporation calling or writing with a question so basic that it's stunning to think that a company of that size hasn't yet mastered the basics of, say, recycling. Other times it's an article or blog post that shows how far we've yet to go to make sustainable business a truly mainstream endeavor.

(Of course, in between those slaps are plenty of refreshing, encouraging, and energizing signs, many of which I share in these pages.)

Today, it was a posting on Hugg, "a user-driven social content site," in the parlance of the Web. (Or, for Webheads, a "green Digg.") Hugg, produced by my friends at Treehugger, encourages users to post articles, blog entries, video clips, and other items of interest on green topics. Users show their support for the entries by "hugging" them.

This entry caught my eye:

EPSON GOES GREEN!!!!!!

Intriguing, to say the least, for those of us who follow corporate environmental initiatives. Reading further, and clicking through to the source story, revealed that Epson's revolutionary "greening" stemmed from its announcement that it plans to

change the packaging for its large format printer (LFP) ink cartridges from white cardboard to 100% recycled brown cardboard (kraft cardboard) and to standardize packaging specifications worldwide.

To be fair, the company also said it will "change the plastic used in ink cartridge casings from gray to a natural color."

Epson deserves credit for this, of course, but I doubt that even the most ardent of its PR staffers would claim that the company has "gone green" (never mind the half-dozen exclamation points). This is, at best, a small step in a committed company's earnest efforts to reduce its environmental footprint.

What blows me away is the enthusiasm of the poster, "linton," and his or her 10 fellow-hugging travelers. What is it about this announcement that fomented such exclamatory adoration?

God forbid if Epson actually announced it was making a machine out of nontoxic and recyclable biobased plastics -- one that operates off of solar power. Or whatever.

All this is even more confounding given the often venomous remarks to announcements by some big companies of truly significant initiatives. How does Epson's packaging announcement stack up against, say, Dupont's announcement a couple months ago about its companywide sustainability commitment, including specific goals to reduce its footprint and transform its products? It received more than a little grumbling from enviros about its sincerity.

And so it goes. One company's small step, it seems, is some enviro's green dream.

Color me clueless.

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Comments

[Preston]

With all due respect, I understand what you're saying, but can you clarify whether your position with regards to GreenerPrinter has any effect on your feelings for Epson? If none at all, I completely understand...as for myself, I don't have any background in green printing, so I'm not sure if one would color your impression of the other. Thanks...

[Joel Makower]

My position has nothing whatsoever to do with GreenerPrinter. They are a printing service; Epson sells computer hardware. The two companies are completely noncompetitive.

My comments reflected my astonishment over the excitement expressed by the Hugg poster, based on this company's relatively minor environmental improvement. I would have been just as astonished if the company in question sold cell phones or toothpaste or pratically anything else.

[Keith R]

Hi Joel. As you doubtless know, the info on which that enthusiastic Hugg blurb was based came from an Epson press release. I saw the same release, decided it wasn't earthshaking enough to mention in my own blog, as I know of (as I am sure you do too) many companies that took "greener" steps regarding their packaging long ago.

I will say this, though: Epson was one of the first non-cell phone companies to voluntarily set up a WEEE take-back program in Latin America (Argentina, to be precise), and for that I'll give them lots of credit. I wish others would follow their example in that portion of corporate environmental responsibility.
Best Regards,
Keith

[MartinE]

If Epson were to truly announce a green initiative it would have to include a remanufacturing program for their ink cartridges. Instead, all the OEM makers of cartridges proactively imply that reloaded cartridges are lower in quality so they can sell new, premium priced supplies and trash the old plastic and metal casings.
Buy reloaded cartridges if you want to support green printing. Even better, don't print- you don't really need output 90% of the time.

[JiltedCitizen]

It's better than nothing. But since Epson obviously does not live up to your green standards, misewell as lump then into the evil pile. Lets not complement them on the small step at all. This just shows the fickleness of environmentalists.

[Craig]

Jilted Citizen - not wanting to enter into any controversy, I do feel it pertinent to mention that Joel has given praise where it's due: "Epson deserves credit for this, of course...". I think it's clear the central theme of his post is that there seems to be a lot of excitement over a relatively small step by Epson. There are too many companies, celebrities, and otherwise, that seek to get into consumer's good books by making the tiniest of 'sacrifices'. As consumers, I think we need to be discerning enough to measure these efforts fairly and objectively. The announcement from Epson is encouraging - but it certainly hasn't turned my world upside down.

[JiltedCitizen]

I did not realize Mr. Makower held the sole rights to decide when a company has gone green, or when their efforts are considered good enough. My bad.

[amused]

ha..........just be thankful linton posted something other than another damn video from youtube.

[gstoen]

glad to see joel starting to get a little critical. you can only promote the 'little stuff' and bad Pr for so long. there was one story a while back where a company was claiming to be climate neutral because it was taking credit for improvements in the energy efficiency of its product, and saying that "offset" the company's own impact. Well if my company buys the product, won't we count that too? Again, glad to see J starting to be a little more critical. I'm all for companies getting credit for doing good things, but we gotta start raising the bar if we want to get anywhere.

[Mike Kilroy]

Unfortunately, it could very well be that the poster as well as those who responded is a single Epson PR person. Some companies are attempting to take advantage of the Web's social networking openness to unethically make it appear like there's a groundswell of support for their initiatives. Not saying it happened in this case, but it does happen.

[Anonymous]

Hugg is like a thousand blogs put together,
and people decide together on what should make it to the frontpage.

If someone decides to post EPSON GOES GREEN!! on their personal blog, it's their right. Doesn't mean the story is accurate.. Well, on hugg, it's the voters who are supposed to decide what has merit. They won't always be right, of course, but overall the benefits are better than the downsides, and the more people there are on hugg, the better it will become (like Wikipedia).

I think criticizing Hugg right now is a bit like criticism of Wikipedia in 2003 or Digg when it just started. Just wait and see, it'll get better...

[Bentley]

If one spent even a relatively short period of time on the Hugg website, one would quickly realize that 'Linton' is NOT even remotely close to an 'Epson PR person', although I certainly would not be surprised if this sort of practice (mentioned above) is widespread.

I have a huge amount of respect for Joel and his blog, and am glad that he brought light to the Epson situation. I am however somewhat puzzled by what seems to me to be a fairly harsh criticism of a person (linton) who has done a great job of 'spreading the word' about many interesting/newsworthy 'green' stories.

[Preston]

I'm jetsongreen and I hugged the story. I admit it. Seemed like a good thing to do. Mike, I'm not getting paid by Epson. And I can vouch for two others on that list and say for certain they're not getting paid by Epson either.

The green blogosphere is a relatively small world, especially in the concentrated microcosm of Hugg.

[JiltedCitizen]

How in the hell do I get paid by Epson, or any other company. Sounds like a great idea to me.

[CT Green Warrior]

I agree with Joel that this is a lay-up for a company like Epson. But I think the point that is being over looked is that the market place is currently a little giddy for green and buy-green consumers are growing in numbers. So if Epson has added just a little tint of green technology to its product, in today’s market place which HP owns a large chunk of, any green press is good press. Also, Epson figures that somebody will read the press release through RSS or blog feeds and consumers read it and buy Epson printers. Remember, that’s the goal. Lastly, while it might not be a big deal, for a small to mid sized business that reads this green news it might be huge. Many of these types of businesses are looking to incorporate green strategies into their operation and culture. This news may in fact help them green their supply chain and spark ideas that could generate sustainable solutions...Somewhere at Epson, two communications professionals are high-fiving because their message got onto two of the most popular green business bogs and we’re commenting about Epson.

[Stive Angelo]

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