Being Green

Back in the late 80s, when the doom and destruction of the cold war Regan-era left America looking at a cataclysmic future and possible apocalypse by the new millennium, we started celebrating Earth Day at my elementary school.

This was pre-blue box recycling era; reduce, reuse, and recycle were all new news to most non-hippies. So to help us along at school, lesson plans would begin centering around the environment at the start of the academic quarter. The education was misguided, but thorough, and culminated in a musically fueled march to a local park where we would stand around while our principal and gym teacher would plant a tree.

To my mother's chagrin, the system's plan worked and went all Lorax on her ass. I became a recycling/composting vigilante, hell-bent on making sure our family was doing our part to sustain the earth. Yeah.
But then I changed schools, the 90s came and went, and Earth Day as well as that green mentality all but fell off my radar (and I suspect most of America's).

When the oil price shit storm of '08 hit (and drove commodity costs through the roof), the focus shifted yet again on the long term benefits and cost savings of the new green model. Green became not only a "values" model, but one of actual cost-savings value.

With the "greening" of corporations from local businesses to large MNCs having long since mainstreamed, I wonder if this holiday is relevant anymore? If so, what kind of Earth Day activations will occur?

• GE's been getting railed by the economy, would hearing more about EcoMagination help turn their financial tides?
• Does WalMart stray from the save money bent they've pushed since the recession took hold and renew a focus on the wonderfully wedded "save and live green" value/values concept?
• Will there be a new teaser ad for Chevy's famed Volt (does this 2010 launch date feel suspect to anyone else)?
• Will my local Farmer's Market give out those reusable bags that I love?
• Will Starbuck's offer free coffee to customers that bring their own cup?

Thoughts, comments, wishes, etc welcome below.
XO