Corporate America Jumps on “Green is Good” Bandwagon

No newspaper columnist in the country speaks more with the authority of conventional corporate wisdom than the New York Times’ Thomas Friedman. A devout backer of unrestricted free trade, an until very recently a huge fan of the Iraq War, Friedman is now urging the United States to lead a Green Revolution in order to regain the moral authority and world leadership squandered during the Bush years.

At one level, longtime green activists should be cheered that Friedman is preaching such a message; it is good that a greater commitment to the environment is now a safe, “mainstream” cause.

But one can also see Friedman’s jumping on the Green bandwagon ---three decades after many of the arguments in his recent article were made--- as part of a corporate strategy to “market” an environmental ethic in a way that subordinates social and economic justice concerns.

In San Francisco, everyone seems to love “Green” buildings. Building “green” office and condo towers is the talk of urban America, as architects and developers have figured out a great way to make upscale, potential gentrifying structures into a “social good.”

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