On the Green Classroom

REVIEW: Summerville, C. (2011). Evaluating and Promoting Eco-Products: Activities which promote student and community awareness about the ethics of consumer products. Green Teacher, 94, 26-30.

Article Review by Dylan Grier

In “Evaluating & Promoting Eco-Products,” Summerville offers a program for teachers to implement in their classrooms to foster eco-friendly practices in students. By developing “eco-literacy” (Summerville, 2011), students should be able to critically analyze the products that they consume. Furthermore, Summerville suggests that students can impart their knowledge on others, which can create a sense of purpose in their learning and thereby avoid the all-too-common feeling of helplessness in the face of large corporations (2011).

Starting with a broad overview of the proliferation of eco-friendly products, Summerville highlights a number of considerations that are not always factored into eco-claims; country of origin, the amount of carbon produced in making and transporting a product, and compliance with animal welfare standards are all points that consumers should consider when shopping with an environmental conscience.
The activities offered by the author to educators are engaging, and progress logically, with the first being a simple exercise to activate awareness: bring in a product that you use regularly. In groups, students are asked to analyze the eco-claims on a product’s packaging to determine whether it is genuinely “eco-friendly.”Students are then asked to decide if they need more information or if they are satisfied with the claims. Summerville argues that students can effect change by “supporting ethical manufacturers and potentially influencing other companies towards producing more ethical products” (2011).

While this is certainly an admirable goal, it perhaps ignores the reality of many mainstream eco-friendly options. That is, many of the same companies who produce products claiming to be environmentally friendly also produce versions of the same product that are not environmentally friendly. This raises some important questions: should eco-friendliness be judged on a product-by-product basis, or should it be based on the eco-initiatives of an organization as a whole? Or, as Summerville suggests , does the onus lie with consumers to purchase eco-friendly products until non-eco-friendly products are rendered obsolete?

To further illustrate this point, it is instructive to give an example of this sort of situation. Maybe the best-known laundry detergent in Canada, Tide, also has an eco-friendly counterpart called “Tide Coldwater.” This detergent claims to be environmentally friendly on the basis of its energy-saving qualities (i.e. consumers need not use hot water for the detergent to be effective). However, further analysis reveals that Tide and Tide Coldwater are both manufactured by Procter & Gamble, an American multinational corporation ranked 26th in 2011’s Fortune 500 (money.cnn.com, 2011). This is the same company that is widely credited with the proliferation of the disposable diaper in the early 1960s (Baron, 2006). It is no secret that disposable diapers account for a significant portion of waste at landfill sites.

According to Environment Canada“[a]approximately 250,000 tones of disposable diapers are sent for disposal each year in Canada, according to 2004 figures”(Environment Canada, 2011). This massive amount of waste “represent[s] approximately 3 percent of the total quantity of residential waste for disposal in Canada” (Environment Canada, 2011). Thus, it may be disingenuous to allow students to believe they are acting in a wholly responsible manner when many of these eco-friendly products are being produced by some of the worst environmental offenders.

Similarly, a new line of green cleaning products called GreenWorks is actually manufactured by Clorox, the same company who makes bleach, as well as Glad, a line associated conquering the disposable plastic bag market.

I am cognizant of the fact that Summerville is trying to suggest that if we educate our youth and encourage them to buy eco-friendly products, profit-seeking corporations will take notice and expand their green product lines and decrease, (or perhaps even eliminate), production of “non-green” products. It may be overly idealistic to assume, particularly with the current global economic downturn, that consumers, through their purchasing power, will be able to effect an industrial shift of this magnitude. There is typically a significant price differential at the retail level between the green and non-green product lines. This adds an extra level of commitment on the part of the consumer; a level of commitment that some, such as myself, cannot always afford.

Nevertheless, the activities set forth by Summerville can be seen as the baby steps needed before a full-scale march is possible. The author acknowledges that the program is designed so as not to overwhelm students. Instead, he sees them as the beginning of a learning process. An evaluation of the organizations themselves, their sources, and the retailers they use would be valuable extensions to the proposed activities.

In my classroom, I would certainly employ these ideas and activities. The creation of an “advertising booth” for other classes to see is an engaging way for students to realize that their newfound expertise can have a direct impact on many facets of their day-to-day lives, not just their personal product choices. To further empower students, I might try to shift the focus of the activities away from consumption of goods towards creating our own green products, like household cleaning supplies. Summerville confirms my previous assumption that students often feel helpless in the face of environmental issues. Finding ways to catalyze an environmental consciousness in the classroom is therefore an important goal for educators.

As a final extension, I think I would try to arrange a field trip to a local landfill site. I would guess that many young people have only seen these places on television. After learning about recyclables and eco-friendliness, I think the contrast of waste and pollution, (not to mention the smell), would be an eye-opening experience that would highlight the need for environmental education.

REFERENCES

Baron, D.P. (2006) Business and its Environment. (Toronto: Pearson).

Environment Canada (2011) The Great Diaper Debate: are cloth or disposable diapers better for the environment? Retrieved from: http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/default.asp?lang=en&n=250eedd7-1

CNNMoney (2011) Fortune 500: Our Annual Ranking of America’s Largest Corporations. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune500/2011/full_list/

Summerville, C. (2011). Evaluating and Promoting Eco-Products: Activities which promote student and community awareness about the ethics of consumer products. Green Teacher, 94, 26-30.