Engineer Jan L. A.van de Snepscheut said, “In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.” (p.9)
That’s one of the main points of a terrific new book, Getting Green Done: Hard Truths from the Front Lines of the Sustainability Revolution, by Auden Schendler. Schendler is the executive director of sustainability at Aspen Skiing Company, a luxury ski resort that decided to go green. Getting Green Done is the story of what happened.
Schendler says there’s a basic problem with the Enviro movement — folks aren’t willing to tell the truth of just how hard it often is to go green.
Deep beneath the surface of one of many green “success stories” you read about in the news and you’ll frequently find something more like Apocalypse Now than a finely tuned operation. This doesn’t mean that we give up. But we need to recognize that it’s wanting to watch a PowerPoint presentation on corporate sustainability, and another thing entirely to make a real. ( p.11)
Why do people hide the truth? Enviros are afraid of giving their adversaries ammunition. Green consultants are afraid the truth will scare off clients looking for a quick fix. Green gurus want simple stories with happy endings. And folks like Schendler? Take the case of a company that’s just finished creating a green building.
The problem is that once you’ve gone through the green building process, you are scared to point out the warts because your work is now considered a model and you’re getting huge PR for it. (p.11)
And that makes it hard for us to learn from our mistakes.
What we need, he says, is “more grunts, fewer visionaries”.
“we all need to be part of an army of foot soldiers, laboring in the trenches, for years, making mistakes, failing, learning, and moving forward, one bloody yard at a time. And then we must go to the bar and talk about our experiences, over beers and tequila shots… To that end, this book is the story from the front lines you haven’t heard yet, because often that story is embarrassing. (p. 23)
Up next week: Schendler walks the banana peel walk, A.K.A. the Practitioner’s Perspective
