Assignment
The green consumer It is not easy to be environmentally friendly. It usually requires time, money, effort, patience, kindness or other qualities in short supply. However, opportunities are available to make a difference that may not cost the individual too much! For example, Greenpeace has joined up with power to launch Juice, a new, green electricity supply that for the first time costs exactly the same as ordinary electricity supplies. Juice is building new wind power. Not only is the price of electricity from wind power competitive, but the more subscribers sign up, the more new wind power stations will be built by power. (Most existing green suppliers of electricity use existing old hydro-electric stations, with no promise to build more.) The first new 30- turbine wind power station is planned for a site off the North Wales coast, providing electricity for the first 50,000 subscribers. It will be four miles offshore, inaudible and virtually invisible. Until it is built, subscribers will get green supplies from existing renewable sources. Once more than 50,000 households sign up, another site will be developed, and so on. Phone 0800 316 2610 or click to www.npower.com/juice for instant connection to this new source of electricity with no cost and no sweat as they do the change-over from your present supplier. This is the first time Greenpeace has endorsed a commercial enterprise - answering critics who accuse them of always being against things rather than for something. There is something refreshing about green campaigners lobbying for an energy supplier, as they are not being paid or taking any profits. Interestingly, npower - a big commercial player - is marketing Juice as ‘clean' energy as they think the word ‘green' applied to power would be viewed suspiciously by non-ideological customers.
In 2003 the market for green power was still pathetically small - just 18,000 subscribers, but now there is absolutely no excuse why anyone who has ever had a green thought should not convert to Juice today. Many regard the UK government as having been slow on promoting green energy. While German and Danish wind turbine industries soar ahead with government startup grants, there is a real danger Britain will lose out on this major new industry. Greenpeace wants to see demand for Juice force the government's hand. With an official target of producing 10% of energy from renewable sources by 2010, so far the government has reached only 2.8%, paying out just £250m over three years to subsidies all renewable. It has been estimated that at least £1,000m a year will be needed for wind alone, to lay down cables linking distant wind sites to the national grid. Even more will be needed to get solar energy off the ground, to create a big enough market to bring down the costs of solar panels - another gigantic future industry other governments are stealing from under our noses. One problem for wind power has been strong resistance to giving planning permission for wind farms - even far offshore. But the Greenpeace backing for power is designed to defuse local protests. Recently planning permission was about to be granted on one offshore site when a rare hen harrier was spotted and the scheme dropped for ‘environmental' reasons. However, Greenpeace points out that the hen harrier is as much at risk from global warming as the rest of us if we fail to develop renewable energy supplies. By signing up in great numbers, subscribers will demonstrate public support for wind power.
Most supermarkets stock at least some of the 70 Fair-trade brands of coffee, tea, chocolate, bananas, sugar, honey or orange juice: the Co-op, Waitrose and Sainsbury's stock the most. The Fair-trade kite mark guarantees that poor farmers in developing economies are not exploited by global corporations and that farm workers in such countries are not oppressed by near slave conditions. Such high quality Fair-trade products now cost the same as other quality goods; 68% of people profess to support Fair-trade principles, so why only 1% of the coffee is purchased Fair-trade? True, most supermarkets tuck it away, but why not bend down to a lower shelf for good high roast coffee, or avoid the Nescafe instant for Cafe direct.
Only the poorest households have any excuse for not choosing Fair-trade now. Why do green Recover washing and washing-up products still command less than 1% of the market? Plant-based instead of petrochemical-based, they do far less harm to the environment and cost the same as mid-market detergents, while working just as well. It is quite easy not to buy a rug without the Rug-Mark kite, guaranteeing it has not been made by children or other exploited workers. It is easy not to buy peat bags from garden centers, or garden furniture without the Forest Stewardship Council mark, ensuring it is made from renewable forests. It would save £50-£100 a year in electricity to turn off the television and video instead of leaving them on stand-by. Recycled paper is just as fine and yet cheaper than André. You can even, in one phone call (0800 905090), move your bank account into the Co-op bank, which offers sensible ethical investment (it says no to animal testing for cosmetics, but yes to animal testing for medicines). In surveys the Co-op bank has the most contented staff and customers who can use the Internet, Link machines or any post office to pay money in or out. So why does it have just 3% of the banking market? All these things are dead easy - just a simple shopping choice. So why not? Many more people profess to care than can be bothered to make even these minimal changes. Next time you or anyone else grumbles about what the government has or hasn't done on the green and ethical front; just ask what small things you or they have done first.
Question
1 What argument might be used to support Greenpeace in its endorsement of a commercial enterprise?
2 What is the environmental case for encouraging consumers to buy electricity generated by wind energy?
3 Why might businesses seek to work with, rather than against, pressure groups such as Greenpeace?
The response should include a reference list. Double-space, using Times New Roman 12 pnt font, one-inch margins, and APA style of writing and citations.