Amazon sells green(ish)
I’ve got some real topics to write about (a new bed and my new commute primarily), but I just got an email from Amazon saying that they have a new green section. I don’t agree with a lot of their criteria (is a computer really green just because it’s EnergyStar-compliant?) but I’d rather have people making semi-green choices than non-green choices. It’s also heartening that there are enough people who are doing things about the environment for Amazon create a category for them.
Apart from the word “Green” which seems to appear before every noun on the page, it looks pretty similar to a normal Amazon page. That includes the big top 10 list on the right. In this case, it’s the ten greenest items Amazon sells (as voted on by customers).
From best to worst, here’s the list as I checked this morning. See if you can tell which item doesn’t belong…
- Reusable bags
- CFL - 60-Watt equivalent
- CFL - 100-Watt equivalent
- Reel mower
- Seventh Generation toilet paper (although the picture sure looks like paper towels)
- Commuter bike
- Spinning composter
- Stainless steel water bottle
- Amazon’s Kindle
- Solar panels
Overall, the list is pretty good. I’m glad the top few are cheap and make a big impact. Reusable bags, CFLs, and a reusable water bottle (although further down) all replace lots of resources. More expensive, and requiring more dedication, are the bike, composter, and solar panels. The reel mower is good, although I don’t know how likely it is that people will replace a powered mower with one of those. And it’s not sexy, but recycled toilet paper is good if you haven’t gone the cloth route.
But the Kindle? How did that make it into the top 10? E-book readers are very cool and I’d be tempted if e-ink weren’t so expensive, but they don’t seem very green. Perhaps it’s just that I get most of my books from the library, so the environmental impact is pretty low, but it seems like producing and powering a Kindle would create more waste than reading normal books and magazines.
Or maybe I just have trouble reconciling the other items on the list, which seem very granola, with a high tech device like the Kindle. In which case, I apologize to all of the composting, reel mowing, biking hippies who use their solar panels to power their Kindle and a couple of CFLs to read by!
arduous said,
August 13, 2008 @ 7:10 pm
Yeah, I’m very torn about the Kindle. I do buy a lot of books, but I would want to see hard numbers about the energy used to make the Kindle versus energy to make a book, and how many books you would have to buy to equal the energy to make one Kindle.
There are a number of advantages to the Kindle. Portability would be one, but another would be that it would be a way for authors to still get paid for their work. Right now, I buy all used books or use the library, and am subsequently not supporting a single author which is a huge bummer.
I think you need to crank the numbers, Will, in all of your available free time.