Lily Stolfi 3Running Head STOLFI Stolfi’s Appli.docx

Lily Stolfi 3
Running Head: STOLFI
Stolfi’s Application Paper
Lily Stolfi
July 19, 2017
Monday-Friday 9-10
Dr. Lidzy
Stolfi’s Application Paper Assignment
Interpersonal communication is an essential part of our daily
lives whether we are consciously aware of our use of it or not.
The movie Hitch starring Will Smith, Eva Mendes, Kevin
James, and Amber Valletta demonstrates many different
examples of communication theories throughout every scene
including key terms we have discussed during this semester. In
this essay, I will be introducing eight communication concepts
while providing definitions and examples from the movie Hitch.
The eight most identifiable concepts used in this movie include;
the initiating stage, empowerment, mindfulness, face needs,
Individualism, inferences, chronemics, and perception. The

basic plot line of this story starts in New York city, where Will
smiths character Alex Hitchens is a “date doctor” assisting
Kevin James who plays a shy and clumsy man named Albert,
win over the love of his life, Allegra Cole, played by Amber
Valletta.
Meanwhile Hitchens finds himself falling for Eva Mendes
character, Sara Milas, a well put together gossip columnist who
is very guarded when it comes to entering an interpersonal
relationship with a man. Alex Hitchens, also being a very well
put together college educated man with a clear emphasis on
communication, given his profession, scores a date with Milas
despite her opposition towards men. Things start to take a turn
for the worse when a man tries to hire Hitchens for a one-night
stand and is angry when Alex explains to him that isn’t what his
profession is used for. This man later hooks up with the ever-
vulnerable Casey, Milas best friend. Once word gets out theirs a
date doctor around Milas starts her research. Hitch gets found
out and thus the conflict between major characters begins.
Alex Hitchens main focus when giving his clients advice
consists of a major focus on the initiating stage. This holds true
with what we are taught in Interpersonal Communications with
Dr. Lidzy because he talks about the first impression that men
put off to women and how it can quite literally make or break
the start of the relationship. The initiating stage is the first-time
meeting and interacting with the crush, which for most people is
the hardest part when facing someone who is physically
attractive. Hitchens helps Albert make an outstanding initiation
with Allegra Cole, thus obtaining her attention and keeping it.
Hitchens “initiation” as you will, with Milas was quite different
from Alberts because Albert was in a professional setting on a
board of advisers when Hitch and Milas were simply in a bar.
Empowerment
Mindfulness
Faceneeds
Individualism
Milas makes major infrences on Hitchens career without prior

knowledge of what he does
Chronemics
Perception

Bibliography
© SanderStock/iStock/Thinkstock
Learning Objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
• Describe how a small town in Kansas used green building and
renewable energy technologies and
approaches to rebuild their community after it was leveled by a
devastating tornado.
• Discuss how a single-minded policy focus on economic growth

and “more is better” may be missing the
fact that much of that growth may be imposing enormous
environmental and social costs and may there-
fore be uneconomic.
• Explain the concept of “green intelligence” and how providing
consumers and companies with easy-to-
understand information about the environmental impacts of their
products and purchases might help to
reduce ecological degradation.
• Discuss the meaning of environmental ethics and describe the
differences between a frontier ethic, a
sustainable ethic, and a land ethic.
• Describe how major collegiate and professional sports teams
and programs are adopting green and
sustainable approaches and how this has broader benefits given
the high profile of and public interest in
organized sports.
Looking Into the
Future 10
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IntroDuctIon
Pre-Test
1. the LEED rating system is a measure of how sustainable a
corporation is in its practices.
a. true
b. False

2. Ecological footprint analysis estimates that we are currently
operating our economy at a
level that is environmentally sustainable.
a. true
b. False
3. A system that allows consumers to quickly compare the
environmental impacts of
similar products is called a sustainability rating index.
a. true
b. False
4. Environmentalists who argue for a utilitarian conservation
approach believe that
wilderness and nature have an intrinsic value separate from
their value to people.
a. true
b. False
5. the Global Sports Alliance was formed in 2010 to help sports
teams, venues, and leagues
enhance their environmental performance.
a. true
b. False
Answers
1. b. False. the answer can be found in section 10.1.
3. a. true. the answer can be found in section 10.3.
Introduction
For most of human history our numbers were small enough, and
our technologies primitive

enough, that our actions did not result in environmental change
at a global or planetary scale.
today the situation is different. our global population has soared
past seven billion on its
way to nine, ten, or eleven billion or more by the end of this
century. new technologies have
brought us incredible levels of comfort and amusement, but they
are also responsible for
unimaginable environmental impacts. And the combination of
growing numbers and evolv-
ing technology is leading to ever-increasing rates of change,
making any prediction of the
future a challenging task.
Despite these rapid changes and the growing evidence that
human numbers and technology
are undermining the very environment we depend on for
survival, powerful voices in our
society are arguing for more of the same. We hear that the
solution for poverty, budget defi-
cits, and other problems is more economic growth, even though
current patterns of growth
require greater resource use and generate more and more
pollution and waste products. It’s
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IntroDuctIon
argued that we can’t give up the use of fossil fuels such as coal
and oil even though we know
that the combustion of these fuels is changing the atmosphere
and the climate system. We’re
told that we must keep doing more of the same even though

current approaches have gotten
us into an environmental, economic, and social mess.
Part of the challenge is that it is difficult to imagine an
alternative way forward. Environmen-
talists have tended to focus on problems with our current
approaches and to use fear of envi-
ronmental destruction as a way to motivate individuals and
society to change their behaviors.
However, while it’s important to understand what’s wrong with
our current system (the focus
of much of this book), it’s equally or even more important to
provide people with alternatives
and suggestions for making the world a better place.
In this final chapter we try to do just that. the chapter opens
with a case study of a small
town in the Midwest devastated by a tornado in 2007. In
rebuilding the townspeople decided
to use “green” approaches to building design and energy in
order to both protect the envi-
ronment and also improve their local economy. Section 10.2
presents an alternative vision
for economic growth, arguing that not only is more of the same
impossible from an environ-
mental standpoint but also that it’s probably making us worse
off. Instead, it’s argued that
what we should be growing is clean air, clean water, good jobs,
and sustainable communities.
Section 10.3 introduces an idea known as “green intelligence,”
an approach that provides
consumers and companies with clear information on the
environmental impacts of their
purchasing and production decisions. Section 10.4 steps back
and provides a basic review
of environmental ethics, an important consideration in arguing

for an alternative approach
to the future. Lastly, the chapter concludes with a description of
sustainability efforts in an
unlikely area—organized sports.
the purpose of these readings is not to paint a rosy picture of
the future. As earlier chapters
in the book have made clear, there are enormous environmental
challenges facing us now
and in the future. However, there are also hundreds or perhaps
even thousands of examples
of individuals, companies, and communities that are developing
new technologies; using
new approaches to meet their energy, food, water, and resource
requirements; and generally
defining what a sustainable future might look like. When we
speak of “sustainable” technolo-
gies and approaches, we are referring to practices that help us
meet our needs today without
jeopardizing or undermining the ability of people to meet their
needs in the future. Sustain-
able development is thus an approach that is based on sustaining
natural, social, and human
capital into the future. Economic development that poisons air
and water or destroys the
livelihoods and health of people cannot be considered
sustainable. While criticized as being a
vague concept, the notion of sustainable development can help
guide us in assessing tradeoffs
between various approaches and choices. Should we expand the
use of genetically modified
foods or nuclear power? How much more fossil fuel can we burn
before we irreversibly dis-
rupt our climate system? How much consumption and wealth is
“enough,” and how do we
ensure that we are meeting the minimum needs for food and

water of the world’s poorest?
While a full discussion of these questions is clearly beyond the
scope of this text, it is impor-
tant to keep the concept of sustainability in mind as you
consider just about any environmen-
tal or social issue.
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SEctIon 10.1A GrEEn toWn nAMED GrEEnSburG
10.1 A Green Town Named Greensburg
The study of environmental science can sometimes lead one to
conclude that there is nothing but
gloom and doom on the environmental front. However, for just
about every challenge, there are
also examples where individuals and groups have come together
to identify and develop innova-
tive solutions to environmental challenges. Oftentimes these
efforts were initiated or motivated
largely out of concern for things other than the environment, but
they ended up having positive
environmental impacts as well. Such is the case with
Greensburg, Kansas, a small town that was
nearly wiped off the map by a massive EF-5 tornado in 2007. In
this article Daniel Penner, an
intern for the online environmental news service Grist, visits
Greensburg to find out how the
town has been recovering from this disaster and how an
environmental perspective has infused
their rebuilding efforts.
Like a lot of small rural towns in the American Midwest,
Greensburg was facing economic decline

and de-population for years before the tornado. While tragic,
the 2007 disaster presented the
townspeople with an opportunity to rebuild from the ground up
and to do so in innovative ways.
In the weeks that followed the tornado, the citizens of
Greensburg met on a regular basis to
have open discussions about how they wanted to rebuild their
town and what principles would
guide that reconstruction. While they were not motivated solely
or even primarily by “green”
concerns, the residents of Greensburg recognized the
importance of building a sustainable and
self-sufficient community. They knew that their location on the
plains of Kansas presented them
with the opportunity to exploit wind power as their primary
energy source. And they also recog-
nized that this renewable energy source combined with energy
efficiency would save the town
and its residents tens of thousands of dollars that could be
reinvested in the local economy.
While Greensburg still has a long way to go to recover from the
2007 tornado, they have accom-
plished a tremendous amount in only six years. They have
demonstrated that environmentally
friendly approaches to building and energy supply can also be
consistent with local economic
development. They have proven that individuals and
communities can put policies and struc-
tures in place to improve local self-reliance and self-
sufficiency. And they have given the world
another example or case study of how we can change our way of
life to work with the environ-
ment rather than in opposition to it. The remainder of the
readings in this chapter will grapple
with some of the same themes addressed in this reading—

finding an environmental-economic
balance, moving past simplistic notions and labels of “tree-
hugger” or “eco-freak,” and building
communities that sustain both people and the surrounding
environment on which they and all
of us ultimately depend.
By Daniel Penner
the night of May 4, 2007 an EF-5 tornado nearly two miles wide
hit the town of Greensburg,
a farming community in south-central Kansas. Almost all of the
1,383 residents lost their
homes, nine died, and the town was left looking like this:
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the destruction was sudden and the
rebuilding process was daunting. How-
ever, as thoughts on how to rebuild
swirled, a number of people thought,
“Hey, what if we rebuilt Greensburg
with ‘green’ principles? [. . .]”
Even before the tornado hit, the com-
munity was shrinking and its popu-
lation getting older. Greensburg
residents knew they needed a new
strategy. the tornado, awful as it was,
provided a clean slate.
the greening of Greensburg was a way
to rebrand the community, says the

town’s current mayor, bob Dixson, but
more importantly, it was about “build-
ing a community back as our ancestors
built for us—a community to last.”
In the years that followed, Greensburg would rise from the
rubble, replete with LEED-certi-
fied [Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design]
municipal buildings; a “net metering
policy” that makes solar and wind power more affordable for
residents; and a new town mas-
ter plan [. . .] that includes things like green corridors and a
walkable downtown. the efforts
attracted [. . .] state and federal money, stories in the national
press, and a reality tV show
produced by Leo Dicaprio.
Six years after disaster struck Greensburg, the media circus has
largely left town. but as a
part of our Get Small project at Grist, I thought I’d check in and
see if a community that was
nearly wiped off the map might have lessons for other small
towns that are looking to spruce
up their images and slim down their carbon footprint.
Embracing Sustainability
My first question was how a small town on the Plains managed
to embrace sustainability in
the first place. turns out that from the beginning of the
rebuilding effort, some community
members saw sustainability as a natural extension of rural and
conservative sensibilities. “A
strong value of rural folks is self-sufficiency,” says Daniel
Wallach, who moved to the Greens-
burg area a few years before the tornado, and started the
nonprofit Greensburg Greentown

to help the community with its endeavor into sustainability.
“You hear it all the time in con-
servative circles when you’re talking about government finance:
People are really clear on
not wanting to leave financial burden on kids. but what about
the other kinds of burdens we
leave on kids?”
but as anyone who has ever lived in a small town will
understand [. . . t]his new emphasis on
sustainability had to be authentic.
Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images
The Marine One helicopter, carrying President
Bush, flies over damage left by an EF-5 tornado in
Greensburg, Kansas.
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Dixson credits community meetings in the first days following
the tornado for putting people
on the same page. “It was critical right off the bat that we start
meeting in a big tent outside
of town,” he says. “We did everything out there.” Each entity in
town, from hospital higher-
ups to city officials and nonprofit leaders, would share their
thoughts inside that tent in a
space where everyone could hear. “that helped tie everything
together, so we were working
together,” Dixson says.

Renewable Energy
the early rebuilding efforts generated a tremendous amount of
energy, and some remarkable
examples of eco-friendly ingenuity. Local resident brad Estes
says greening Greensburg “was
a 24/7 job.” Early on, many were unsure if they wanted to
spend, in some cases, over twice
as much in building costs to do it the green way. However,
Estes notes that those that made
a commitment to a sustainable rebuild “feel like it’s paying
back in lower energy prices and
better conservation of resources.”
Estes is now the director of wind operations for btI Wind
Energy, a local wind turbine com-
pany that was born from the aftermath of the tornado. the
business sells small-scale turbines
for residential and commercial use. over the past few years, it’s
expanded from being just a
local supplier to installing and servicing turbines in other states
and canada. [. . .]
on a larger scale, the city of Greensburg teamed up with John
Deere renewable Energy and
the Kansas Power Pool to build a production-scale wind farm
five miles outside of town. [. . .]
Greensburg receives renewable energy credits and the bragging
rights to getting 100 percent
of its power from the wind.
that 100 percent wind power only refers to what is imported
from elsewhere, however.
Estes estimates that around 8 percent of Greensburg’s energy is
generated from assorted
wind turbines and solar panels scattered around the town itself.
that’s thanks to Greenburg’s

net-metering policy, which allows a resident to install rooftop
solar panels or backyard wind
turbines, feed any leftover power right into the grid, and then
get paid for it—the full retail
price. this allows residents to pay off the up-front cost of panels
and turbines more quickly,
bringing the cost of renewables within reach of more of the
populace.
Economic Impacts
And thanks to all the new high-efficiency buildings, including
the hospital, the local John
Deere dealership, and the arts center, Greensburg is saving
$200,000 annually in energy costs
on 13 of its largest buildings, according to a recent study by the
national renewable Energy
Laboratory (http://greensburg.buildinggreen.com). Private
residences got into the act [. . .]
and there’s this cool map showing all of Greensburg’s
sustainable building projects.
Greensburg is understanding sustain-
ability in its own terms. “being green” in
Greensburg is not a primary motivator,
but a product of respecting resources for
future generations, working toward self-
sufficiency, and adapting to the economic
and physical climate.
Consider This
What main factors help explain the suc-
cess Greensburg has had in rebuilding as a
sustainable and green community?
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http://greensburg.buildinggreen.com
SEctIon 10.2A nEW VISIon oF EconoMIc GroWtH
the true test of the new approach, however, will come with time.
Will the new green infra-
structure attract businesses and jobs, or will Greensburg become
what Mayor Dixson calls a
“green ghost town”? on that front, it may still be too soon to
say, but there are positive signs.
While the population was nearly halved after the tornado (from
1,398 to 775), those that
stayed seem to be sticking around, and many of the businesses
have returned: the hardware
store, the coffee shop, banks, the pharmacy.
And there’s this: In a 2009 statement, Greensburg’s school
superintendent, Darin Headrick,
said that “before the tornado, if you asked most of the high
school kids about their plans for
the future, they’d say the same thing: ‘I’m going to go away to
college and never come back.’
now, they say, ‘I’m going to go to college and then come back.’
they see things here that they
can impact.”
Adapted from Penner, D. (2013, April 2). This town was almost
blown off the map—and now it’s back, and super
green. Grist. Retrieved from http://grist.org/cities/this-town-
was-almost-blown-off-the-map-now-its-back-and
-super-green/ Reproduced by permission of Grist Magazine, Inc.
10.2 A New Vision of Economic Growth
In this reading James Gustave Speth, former Dean of the Yale
School of Forestry and Environ-

mental Studies and co-founder of the Natural Resources Defense
Council (NRDC), makes clear
that economic growth is probably the single most agreed upon
political goal in our country
today. Almost everyone, regardless of political persuasion or
background, seems to accept that
more economic growth is always a good thing and that any
policies, laws, or regulations that
interfere with growth should be eliminated. On the face of it
this seems like a logical and rational
position. More economic growth means more consumer goods
and services, and who can argue
with “more is better”? In fact, ecological economists such as
Herman Daly have been arguing
that more may not always be better and that our single-minded
focus on economic growth has
blinded us to some of the negative consequences of pro-growth
policies.
In many ways what ecological economics is doing is applying
old economic logic to a new set
of environmental and social issues. Basic, fundamental
economic logic makes clear that more is
only better if the marginal benefits derived from “more” of
something exceed the marginal costs
of acquiring it. For example, hourly workers might want to
increase their work hours in order to
earn more money and buy more things, and up to a point that
may make them happier or “bet-
ter” than they were before. However, as these individuals work
longer and longer hours, their
health, family, and social life may suffer, and these costs of
working longer hours may exceed any
benefits derived from increased consumption.
The same basic logic can be applied at a societal scale. As our

economy grows we might see
higher standards of living and rates of consumption, but at what
cost? If that increased eco-
nomic growth was based on shipping jobs overseas, exploiting
workers, or poisoning and pollut-
ing our environment, then we have to consider how any benefits
of economic growth compare
to the costs. By framing the economic growth concept in terms
of costs and benefits, this reading
allows us to ask questions about what aspects of our economy
we want to grow, how we grow
them, and who benefits from that growth. As Speth indicates,
growth in good jobs, healthcare,
schooling, leisure time, and social interaction and equality are
all desirable. Since growth in
these things does not always translate into an increase in our
primary indicator of economic
activity—the gross domestic product (GDP)—they do not
always emerge as political priorities.
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http://grist.org/cities/this-town-was-almost-blown-off-the-map-
now-its-back-and-super-green/
http://grist.org/cities/this-town-was-almost-blown-off-the-map-
now-its-back-and-super-green/
Ultimately, a debate over the benefits and costs of economic
growth and what kind of economy
we want to create will have enormous impacts on the
environment. If we are able to see the
value in many things that are not always “priced” in the
marketplace—clean air, clean water,

time with friends and family, and a sense of community—then
our approach to economic policy
might change. Such a shift would mean a reduction in resource
use and environmental destruc-
tion and a greater investment in environmental conservation and
restoration.
By James Gustave Speth
Is anything in America more faithfully followed than economic
growth? Its movements are con-
stantly watched, measured to the decimal place, deplored or
praised, diagnosed as weak or
judged healthy and vigorous. newspapers, magazines, and cable
channels report endlessly on it.
Promoting growth may be the most widely shared and robust
cause in the united States today.
If the growth imperative dominates u.S. political and economic
life, what happens when
growth hits some serious stumbling blocks?
When I was in school in England, the dean of my college told us
when we first arrived that we
could walk on the grass in the courtyard—but not across it. that
helped me love the English
and their language. Here is another creative use of prepositions:
there are limits to growth,
and there are limits of growth.
Benefits and Costs of Economic Growth
Let’s first take up the limits of growth. Despite the constant
claims that we need more growth,
there are limits on what growth can do for us. the ecological
economist Herman Daly has
reminded us that if neo-classical economists were true to their
trade, they would recognize

that there are diminishing returns to growth. Most obviously,
the value of income growth
declines as one gets richer and richer. Similarly, growth at some
point has increasing marginal
costs. For example, workers have to put in too many hours, or
the climate goes haywire. It
follows that for the economy as a whole, we can reach a point
where the extra costs of more
growth exceed the extra benefits. one should stop growing at
that point. otherwise the coun-
try enters the realm of “uneconomic growth,” to use Daly’s
delightful phrase, where the costs
of growth exceed the benefits it produces.
there are some, myself included, who believe that the u.S. is
now experiencing uneconomic
growth. If one could measure and add up all the environmental,
security, social and psycho-
logical costs that u.S. economic growth generates at this point
in our history, they would
exceed the benefits of further ramping up what is already the
highest GDP per capita of any
major economy.
though not widely accepted, the case is strong that growth in the
affluent u.S. is now doing
more harm than good. today, the reigning policy orientation
holds that the path to greater
well-being is to grow and expand the economy. GDP,
productivity, profits, the stock market,
and consumption must all go up. this growth imperative trumps
all else. It can undermine
families, jobs, communities, the climate and environment, and a
sense of place and continu-
ity because it is confidently asserted and widely believed that
growth is worth the price that

must be paid for it.
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Consider This
How might policies to improve health,
the environment, and social equality slow
growth, and how can that be simultane-
ously described as improving well-being
and quality of life?
A Post-Growth Society?
It is time for America to move to post-growth society where the
natural environment, work-
ing life, our communities and families, and the public sector are
no longer sacrificed for the
sake of mere GDP growth; where the illusory promises of ever-
more growth no longer pro-
vide an excuse for neglecting to deal generously with our
country’s compelling social needs;
and where true citizen democracy is no longer held hostage to
the growth imperative.
Another way of pointing out the limits of growth is to consider
the long list of public policies
that would slow GDP growth, thus sparing the environment,
while simultaneously improving
social and individual well-being. Such policies include: shorter
workweeks and longer vaca-
tions, with more time for children and families; greater labor
protections, job security and
benefits, including generous parental leaves; guarantees to part-

time workers and combining
unemployment insurance with part-time work during recessions;
restrictions on advertising;
a new design for the twenty-first-century corporation, one that
embraces re-chartering, new
ownership patterns, and stakeholder primacy rather than
shareholder primacy; incentives for
local and locally-owned production and consumption; strong
social and environmental provi-
sions in trade agreements; rigorous environmental, health and
consumer protection, includ-
ing full incorporation of environmental and social costs in
prices; greater economic and social
equality, with genuinely progressive taxa-
tion of the rich (including a progressive
consumption tax) and greater income
support for the poor; heavy spending on
neglected public services; and initiatives
to address population growth at home
and abroad. taken together, these policies
would undoubtedly slow GDP growth,
but well-being and quality of life would
improve, and that’s what matters.
Apply Your Knowledge
the short documentary film Story of Stuff provides a very clear
explanation of how economic
growth and more “stuff ” does not necessarily make us any
better off.
Watch the Story of Stuff (http://storyofstuff.org) and summarize
why our current approach to
economic development may be resulting in “uneconomic”
growth.

but an expanding body of evidence is now telling us to think
again. the never-ending drive
to grow the overall u.S. economy is ruining the environment; it
fuels a ruthless international
search for energy and other resources; it fails at generating the
needed jobs; it hollows out
communities; and it rests on a manufactured consumerism that
is not meeting the deepest
human needs. Americans are substituting growth and
consumption for dealing with the real
issues—for doing things that would truly make us and the
country better off.
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http://storyofstuff.org
of course, it is clear that even in a post-growth America, many
things do indeed need to grow:
growth in good jobs and in the incomes of the poor and working
Americans; growth in avail-
ability of health care and the efficiency of its delivery; growth
in education, research and
training; growth in security against the risks of illness, job loss,
old age and disability; growth
in investment in public infrastructure and in environmental
protection and amenity; growth
in the deployment of climate-friendly and other green
technologies; growth in the restora-
tion of both ecosystems and local communities; growth in non-
military government spending
at the expense of military; and growth in international
assistance for sustainable, people-

centered development for the half of humanity that live in
poverty. these are all areas where
public policy needs to ensure that growth occurs.
that’s one case against growth—the argument that we should no
longer prioritize growth,
much less fetishize it as we do now. I believe this case will be
pressed with increasing urgency
in the years ahead, and I doubt we’ll miss our growth fetish
after we say good-bye to it. We’ve
had tons of growth—growth while wages stagnated, jobs fled
our borders, life satisfaction
flatlined, social capital eroded, poverty mounted, and the
environment declined.
Limits to Growth
the case that there are limits to growth—not that we shouldn’t
grow but that we can’t grow—
is based on the reality that we are entering a new age of scarcity
and rising prices that will
constrain growth. the world economy, having doubled in size
three times since 1950, is now
phenomenally large—large even in comparison with the
planetary base that is the setting for
economic activity. today’s huge world economy is consuming
the planet’s available resources
on a scale that rivals their supply, and it is releasing almost all
of those resources, often trans-
formed and toxic, back to the environment on a scale that is
beyond the environment’s assimi-
lation capacities, thus greatly affecting the major
biogeophysical cycles of the planet. natural
resources are becoming increasingly scarce, and the planet’s
sinks for absorbing waste prod-
ucts are already exhausted in many contexts. According to the
Ecological Footprint analysis,

Earth would have to be 50 percent larger than it is for today’s
economy to be environmentally
sustainable.
If we now live in a world where the natural resources and
environmental sinks needed for
economic activity are becoming more scarce across a wide
front, we should see prices rising.
And indeed we do. Prices of many things are rising rather
rapidly: oil, coal, food, and numer-
ous non-fuel minerals. Lithium and rare earths are probably not
far behind.
If these patterns hold, as seems likely, and one factors in the
economic losses due to climate
disruption and the higher energy prices due to climate
protection policies, it’s hard to imag-
ine that economic growth won’t be slowed. Moreover, as noted
earlier, the increasing scarcity
of the atmospheric sink for greenhouse gas emissions is going
to challenge growth among
the affluent countries. reducing carbon emissions at required
rates may not be possible in
national economies that are stressing growth maximization.
Author richard Heinberg and many others have been calling
attention to the looming chal-
lenge of peak oil. After much controversy, the reality of peak
oil is now widely accepted. oil
production did actually reach its all-time high in 2005 and has
plateaued since. Peak oil,
the point of maximum production after which production begins
to decline, may thus have
ben85927_10_c10.indd 416 1/28/14 1:18 PM

SEctIon 10.3A MArKEt APProAcH to tHE EnVIronMEnt
already happened, but, if not, a widely held view today is that
oil will have peaked and begun
to decline before 2030, perhaps a decade or so hence.
What’s Next?
Many who have looked at the combined challenge of energy and
climate change have con-
cluded that our civilization, having completed its exuberant,
flamboyant phase, is headed
toward a dramatic simplification and re-localization of life and
the end of economic growth as
we have known it. Some even see the collapse of modern
civilization as just a matter of time.
In The Transition Handbook, the bible of the fast-growing
transition town movement, rob
Hopkins identifies three scenarios: adaptation, which assumes
“we can somehow invent our
way out of trouble”; evolution, which requires a collective
change of mindset, but assumes
that “society, albeit in a low-energy, more localized form, will
retain its coherence”; or col-
lapse, which assumes that “the inevitable outcome of peak oil
and climate change will be the
fracturing and disintegration, either sudden or gradual, of
society as we know it.”
the eventual outcome will likely involve elements of all three of
these scenarios, occurring
at different times and different places. Hopefully, the
“evolution” scenario will predominate.

“Within this century, environmental and resource constraints
will likely bring global eco-
nomic growth to a halt . . . ,” canadian political scientist thomas
Homer-Dixon wrote in For-
eign Policy earlier this year. “We can’t live with growth, and
we can’t live without it. this con-
tradiction is humankind’s biggest challenge this century, but as
long as conventional wisdom
holds that growth can continue forever, it’s a challenge we can’t
possibly address.”
So there we have it: the traditional solution that America has
invoked for nearly every
problem—more growth—is in big trouble. If we are going to
move beyond growth, we will
need to build a different kind of economy. We Americans need
to reinvent our economy, not
merely restore it. We will have to shift to a new economy, a
sustaining economy based on
new economic thinking and driven forward by a new politics.
Sustaining people, communi-
ties and nature must henceforth be seen as the core goals of
economic activity, not hoped for
by-products of market success, growth for its own sake, and
modest regulation. that is the
paradigm shift we must now begin to pursue and promote.
Adapted from Speth, J. G. (2011, May 31). Off the Pedestal:
Creating a New Vision of Economic Growth. Yale
Environment 360. Retrieved from
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/off_the_pedestal_creating_a_new_v
ision_of
_economic_growth/2409/ Reprinted by permission of the author.
10.3 A Market Approach to the Environment
Just as the previous article advocated a new approach to

environmental politics, this next reading
calls for a new way of doing business that puts the power for
environmental change in the hands
of individual consumers. Author Daniel Goleman explains the
concept of green intelligence,
which provides consumers with a simple rating system that
ranks the environmental impacts of
various products.
ben85927_10_c10.indd 417 1/28/14 1:18 PM
ision_of_economic_growth/2409/
ision_of_economic_growth/2409/
The economic logic behind this approach is that markets work
better when buyers and sellers
are given more information. Until recently, most consumers
have not had the time or inclination
to gather detailed information on the environmental impact of a
given product. That situation
might be about to change. As Goleman explains, companies
such as WalMart are working on
pilot projects to develop a sustainability rating index for the
products they sell. Consumers
would be able to compare, at a glance, the relative
environmental impacts of two otherwise
similar items. Whereas public opinion surveys reveal that only
10 percent of consumers pres-
ently make an effort to study the environmental impacts of the
products they purchase, and
30 percent of consumers say they do not care at all, more than

half would be inclined to consider
such information were it made available to them in an easy-to-
understand way.
The hope is that if enough consumers begin to use this
information and “vote with their dollars,”
then corporations will get the message and work to improve
their environmental performance.
Such a market-based approach to the environment aims to use
the “carrot” of increased market
share and profits to get companies to do the right thing rather
than just the “stick” of environ-
mental regulation and enforcement.
By Daniel Goleman
With climate legislation dead in congress and the fizzled hopes
for a breakthrough in copen-
hagen [a reference to the 2009 united nations climate change
conference in copenhagen,
Denmark] fading into distant memory, the time seems ripe for
fresh strategies—especially
ones that do not depend on government action.
Here’s a modest proposal: radical transparency, the laying bare
of a product’s ecological
impacts for all to see.
Economic theory applied to ecological metrics offers a novel
way to ameliorate our collective
assault on the global systems that sustain life. there are two
fundamental economic prin-
ciples that, if applied well, might just accelerate the trend
toward a more sustainable planet:
marketplace transparency about the ecological impacts of
consumer goods and their supply
chains, and lowering the cost of that information to zero.

First transparency. A maxim in economics holds that
transparency makes markets work more
efficiently. this rule has long been applied to price, but why not
also apply it to the ecological
impacts of industry and commerce? At present when it comes to
the ecological consequence
of the things we buy, we have information asymmetry, where
sellers know far more than
buyers.
this seems about to change. one big mover is WalMart, which
last summer [2009] announced
it will develop a “sustainability index,” a credible rating of the
ecological impacts of the prod-
ucts it sells boiled down into a single metric that shoppers can
use to compare brand A and
brand b. there are signs this is more than marketing hype:
WalMart has started to pilot life-
cycle analyses of products it carries, and, some say, hopes to
make transparent such data on
the environmental and social impacts of suppliers four levels
deep in the chain of vendors.
the key, of course, will be to make sure the cost of quantifying
and listing such data is mini-
mal, as price will remain the primary determining factor for
consumers.
ben85927_10_c10.indd 418 1/28/14 1:18 PM
WalMart is by no means the only player in taking steps to
become more ecologically transpar-

ent. companies such as unilever (brands like Dove Soap and
Lipton tea) and Google (its serv-
ers consume enormous amounts of energy) are following their
own maps to transparency
about the eco-impacts of their operations, to find ways to make
operations more sustainable.
“Group of Ten”
Several global companies are forming a “Group of ten” to
develop a supply chain trans-
parency system called Earthster into its newest version, “E2
turbo.” rather than go to the
expense of a full life-cycle analysis (which can cost $50,000
and take months), E2 turbo asks
for data only on the 20 percent or so of a product’s life cycle
that accounts for around 80 per-
cent of environmental impacts.
now under development, this supply-chain-tracking software
lets companies understand
where their largest negative impacts are, and how to find more
sustainable alternatives. A
built-in recommendations engine, drawing on a Department of
commerce database, sug-
gests suppliers or other players that can help companies
improve those impacts. that guides
business-to-business decisions, with companies better able to
find vendors that will let them
keep their eco-impact scores low.
As more and more companies feed data into E2 turbo—which is
open source—they will
together build what amounts to an information commons. there
has also been discussion
about the u.S. government establishing a site for that commons,
creating a public database

on ecological impacts that amounts to new public resource that
any company, small or large,
could draw on to improve the impacts of its operations.
A radical transparency about the ecological impacts may yet
emerge from these efforts—and
many in the business world are paying attention. A recent
article in Harvard Business Review
proclaims that sustainability has become an essential business
strategy and the key driver of
innovation. to be sure, there are large numbers of companies
who resist—but they may yet
join in, if markets shift toward brands that are more transparent
about ecological footprints,
creating a compelling business case.
Driving Consumer Decisions With Simplicity
that shift will become far more likely with the application of the
second economic principle,
lowering to zero the “cost” of this information, the cognitive
effort we must make to get rel-
evant data. consumer surveys show that about 10 percent of
today’s shoppers will go out
of their way to get information about the ecological impacts of
what they buy, while about a
third could not care less. the majority in the middle say that if
the information were easy to
come by, they might use it in deciding what to buy.
that’s where the action is: making crucial data easy to get. that
was done, for instance, at the
Hannaford brothers grocery chain in Maine, with nutritional
ratings of foods. While the ratings
were sophisticated—made by nutritionists at institutions like
Yale and Dartmouth—they were

ben85927_10_c10.indd 419 1/28/14 1:18 PM
Consider This
Some people already pay close attention
to the environmental impacts of what they
buy while others simply don’t care. Most
people are in the middle, open to the idea
of considering environmental impacts but
not already doing it. What do these people
lack to help them begin to pay attention?
boiled down into a three-, two-, or one-star
rating posted next to the price tag (there
was also zero, which about 80 percent of
foods received, mainly because of the salt
and fats in processed foods).
the result was a significant shift in pur-
chases toward the more nutritious food
and away from the less. the shifts in market
share were large enough to get the attention
of food brand reps who started asking what
they needed to do to get higher ratings.
that switch in a company’s actions because transparency in the
marketplace has driven con-
sumer decisions in a better direction has been called a “virtuous
cycle” by Archon Fung at
Harvard university’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
Fung led a group studying how
transparency alters market dynamics and becomes a mechanism
for positive change.

Transparency Websites
Such marketplace transparency about the ecological impacts of
consumer goods can be seen
today at www.GoodGuide.com, a website that aggregates more
than 200 databases on the
environmental, health, and social impacts of tens of thousands
of consumer goods. Good-
Guide—a free smart phone app—allows shoppers to compare
the eco-virtue of products
while in the aisles of a store. today that comparison requires
running your shopping list by
the website on your computer or swiping a product’s bar code
with a cellphone. but the day
will come when a daring retailer puts that data next to price
tags—thus reducing the informa-
tion cost to zero, as Hannaford brothers did with nutritional
data.
Another website, Skin Deep, a project of the Environmental
Working Group, reveals the poten-
tial medical risks of the chemicals used in personal care
products, and so ranks them from
safest to most risky. Skin Deep’s ratings are made by searching
in medical databases for the bio-
logical effects of a given ingredient, and then weighting the
health risks accordingly. Skindeep
[sic] has been consulted more than 100 million times by
shoppers wanting to know which skin
cream or baby lotion might be a better bet.
these two websites offer ratings that are credible, independent,
and transparent themselves—
the three criteria proposed by the Kennedy School of
Government group. to be sure, systems
like GoodGuide have yet to obtain fully transparent data about

the total eco-impacts of any
company or product. these consumer-facing transparency
systems are more proof of concept
than state-of-the-art. but they offer a hopeful sign we may be
headed in that direction.
ben85927_10_c10.indd 420 1/28/14 1:18 PM
www.GoodGuide.com
The Transformative Power of Transparency
As the head of product innovation at a global company pointed
out to me, ecological transpar-
ency would change the business landscape in two ways. First
would be a shift in the “value
basis” of a product, adding its ecological impacts into the
equation. Second, such transpar-
ency would drive intense competition to rethink products to
lower those impacts, and so
protect a brand’s market position.
As non-proprietary data collection systems like Earthster
compile numbers on the ecological
footprints of industry, that information could well feed into an
emerging metric that has been
designed to replace GDP [Gross Domestic Product]. called the
“General Progress Indicator,” or
GPI, this index of national progress rethinks economic
indicators by, for example, rising when
the poor receive a larger portion of a nation’s income and
dropping when they get less.
Among the indicators factored into GPI are resource depletion,

pollution, and long-term envi-
ronmental damage. So while the GDP counts pollution as a
double gain for an economy—for
the economic activity while it is created and again while being
cleaned up—GPI counts the
costs of that pollution as a loss. Earthster-type databases could
bring more precision and cur-
rency to GPI’s metrics.
Another movement in economics that might embrace such data
is the attempt to “inter-
nalize externalities”—that is, to make companies bear the costs
of, say, cleaning up their
pollution rather than governments, by taxing their goods
proportionally to their nega-
tive eco-impacts. that idea remains a hard sell to business, and
to most governments. but
Many companies and products seem to be “jumping on the green
bandwagon” and advertising
their products as “natural,” “eco-friendly,” or somehow better
for the environment. consum-
ers are bombarded with these claims, and it becomes difficult to
know what to believe or not.
Environmentalists have begun to refer to some of these product
claims as “greenwashing,” an
attempt to claim a positive environmental image where it might
not be justified. For this exer-
cise, start by reading about greenwashing at these sites:
•
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=greenwashin
g-green-energy-hoffman
• http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Greenwashing
• http://www.stopgreenwash.org/

• http://www.greenwashingindex.com/
next, when you visit the grocery store, see if you can find three
products that make some claim
about being “eco-friendly” or better for the environment in
some way. then, see if you can
assess whether these claims are really supported or not, either
by doing your own research or
by making use of an existing resource like GoodGuide
(http://www.goodguide.com/). What did
you learn from this exercise? How can consumers be better
equipped to distinguish between
legitimate claims of positive environmental practices and those
that qualify as greenwashing?
ben85927_10_c10.indd 421 1/28/14 1:18 PM
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=greenwashin
g-green-energy-hoffman
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Greenwashing
http://www.stopgreenwash.org/
http://www.greenwashingindex.com/
http://www.goodguide.com/
SEctIon 10.4EnVIronMEntAL EtHIcS
marketplace ecological transparency
makes pollution, toxics and the like
a reputation cost for a brand or com-
pany. this substitutes a market force
for government action, which—given
political realities—may be both more
realistic and quicker.
While many business people are start-

ing to take ecological transparency
seriously enough to embed it in their
strategic thinking, the question arises:
Are economists paying attention? A few
are. but for the most part these poten-
tially disruptive information technolo-
gies, and the marketplace transparency
they promise, are beneath the field’s
radar, or entirely off the map.
one exception is James Angresano, a
political economist at the college of
Idaho, who sees promise in ecological
transparency as a tool for sustainability—itself not a topic
central to orthodox thinking in
economics. “We’ve got to think differently,” Angresano told
me.
When Angresano lectured on these ideas recently to students in
environmental economics
at Peking university, they were so interested they stayed an
extra hour. “of all the theories
I covered over several weeks of lecturing, this resonated the
best,” he commented. “they’re
depressed just hearing what the problems are. this is a way of
making changes; here are
some solutions.”
Adapted from Goleman, D. (2010). How Marketplace
Economics Can Help Build a Greener World. Yale Environment
360. Copyright © 2010 Daniel Goleman. Retrieved from
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_marketplace
_economics_can_help_build_a_greener_world_/2310/ Reprinted
by permission of the author.
10.4 Environmental Ethics

Seldom are environmental debates easy to break down into
simple categories of right and
wrong. Take a question like “should we dam a river?”
Environmental arguments could be made
against such a project—it will disrupt the natural flow of the
river, destroy habitat, and affect
fish and other wildlife. Other arguments in favor of the project,
including environmental ones,
could also be made. The dam might be able to provide a
relatively clean source of energy in the
form of hydroelectric power, and it might also serve as a source
of irrigation and drinking water
for nearby farms and communities. While arguments on both
sides can often be backed by scien-
tific and economic research on the costs and benefits of the
project, it is often true that decisions
ultimately boil down to ethics and morals—how those making
the decisions distinguish between
right and wrong or better and worse.
Tony Ding/AP Images for Walmart
Businesses are beginning to incorporate ecological
transparency principles into their business models.
WalMart is one company that has been making strides
in this area. Here, locally grown produce is displayed
for sale at a WalMart Supercenter in Michigan.
ben85927_10_c10.indd 422 1/28/14 1:18 PM
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_marketplace_economics_can_h
elp_build_a_greener_world_/2310/
http://e360.yale.edu/feature/how_marketplace_economics_can_h
elp_build_a_greener_world_/2310/

The field of environmental ethics deals with how ethics are
applied to decisions regarding the
use of resources and the treatment of the environment. This
article, prepared by topic editor Peter
Saundry as part of an Advanced Placement (AP) course in
environmental science, provides a brief
history of the evolution of environmen-
tal ethics over time. For example, many
European settlers arriving in America
were said to have adopted a “frontier
ethic,” an attitude that resources were
unlimited and existed for the use and
benefit of humans (also known as an
anthropocentric or human-centered
view). Given what must have seemed to
them an endless supply of fish, game, for-
ests, and fields, it is not surprising that
such an ethic would have developed. In
contrast, modern Americans might be
gradually adopting an environmental
ethic as we develop a greater awareness
of the importance of the environment to
our well-being and the growing threats
to it. Indeed, an environmental ethic is
based on the idea that we are a part of
nature as opposed to being apart from it.
By Peter Saundry
the concept of ethics involves standards of conduct. these
standards help to distinguish
between behavior that is considered right and that which is
considered wrong. As we all know,
it is not always easy to distinguish between right and wrong, as

there is no universal code of
ethics. For example, a poor farmer clears an area of rainforest in
order to grow crops. Some
would not oppose this action, because the act allows the farmer
to provide a livelihood for
his family. others would oppose the action, claiming that the
deforestation will contribute to
soil erosion and global warming. right and wrong are usually
determined by an individual’s
morals, and to change the ethics of an entire society, it is
necessary to change the individual
ethics of a majority of the people in that society.
the ways in which humans interact with the land and its natural
resources are determined by
ethical attitudes and behaviors. Early European settlers in north
America rapidly consumed
the natural resources of the land. After they depleted one area,
they moved westward to new
frontiers.
their attitude towards the land was that of a frontier ethic. A
frontier ethic assumes that
the earth has an unlimited supply of resources. If resources run
out in one area, more can
be found elsewhere or alternatively human ingenuity will find
substitutes. this attitude sees
humans as masters who manage the planet. the frontier ethic is
completely anthropocentric
(human-centered), for only the needs of humans are considered.
Most industrialized societies experience population and
economic growth that are based
upon this frontier ethic, assuming that infinite resources exist to
support continued growth

© Beboy_ltd/iStock/Thinkstock
The field of environmental ethics deals with how
ethics are applied to decisions regarding the use of
resources and the treatment of the environment.
ben85927_10_c10.indd 423 1/28/14 1:18 PM
Consider This
How does a sustainable ethic differ from a
frontier ethic? What occurrences created
the transformation in human thinking from
anthropocentric to biocentric?
indefinitely. In fact, economic growth is considered a measure
of how well a society is doing.
the late economist Julian Simon pointed out that life on earth
has never been better, and that
population growth means more creative minds to solve future
problems and give us an even
better standard of living. However, now that the human
population has passed seven billion
and few frontiers are left, many are beginning to question the
frontier ethic.
Such people are moving toward an environmental ethic, which
includes humans as part of the
natural community rather than managers of it. Such an ethic
places limits on human activities
(e.g., uncontrolled resource use), that may adversely affect the
natural community.

Some of those still subscribing to the frontier ethic suggest that
outer space may be the new
frontier. If we run out of resources (or space) on earth, they
argue, we can simply populate
other planets. this seems an unlikely solution, as even the most
aggressive colonization plan
would be incapable of transferring people to extra-terrestrial
colonies at a significant rate.
natural population growth on earth would outpace the
colonization effort. A more likely sce-
nario would be that space could provide the resources (e.g. from
asteroid mining) that might
help to sustain human existence on earth.
Sustainable Ethic
A sustainable ethic is an environmental ethic by which people
treat the earth as if its
resources are limited. this ethic assumes that the earth’s
resources are not unlimited and
that humans must use and conserve resources in a manner that
allows their continued use
in the future. A sustainable ethic also assumes that humans are a
part of the natural environ-
ment and that we suffer when the health of a natural ecosystem
is impaired. A sustainable
ethic includes the following tenets:
• the earth has a limited supply of resources.
• Humans must conserve resources.
• Humans share the earth’s resources with other living things.
• Growth is not sustainable.
• Humans are a part of nature.
• Humans are affected by natural laws.
• Humans succeed best when they maintain the integrity of
natural processes [and]

cooperate with nature.
For example, if a fuel shortage occurs, how can the problem be
solved in a way that is consis-
tent with a sustainable ethic? the solutions might include
finding new ways to conserve oil
or developing renewable energy alternatives. A sustainable
ethic attitude in the face of such
a problem would be that if drilling for oil
damages the ecosystem, then that damage
will affect the human population as well.
A sustainable ethic can be either anthro-
pocentric or biocentric (life-centered).
An advocate for conserving oil resources
may consider all oil resources as the
property of humans. using oil resources
wisely so that future generations have
access to them is an attitude consistent
ben85927_10_c10.indd 424 1/28/14 1:18 PM
with an anthropocentric ethic. using resources wisely to prevent
ecological damage is in accord
with a biocentric ethic.
Land Ethic
Aldo Leopold, an American wildlife natural histo-
rian and philosopher, advocated a biocentric ethic
in his book, A Sand county Almanac. He suggested
that humans had always considered land as prop-
erty, just as ancient Greeks considered slaves as

property. He believed that mistreatment of land
(or of slaves) makes little economic or moral sense,
much as today the concept of slavery is considered
immoral. All humans are merely one component of
an ethical framework. Leopold suggested that land
be included in an ethical framework, calling this the
land ethic.
“the land ethic simply enlarges the boundary of the
community to include soils, waters, plants and ani-
mals; or collectively, the land. In short, a land ethic
changes the role of Homo sapiens from conqueror
of the land-community to plain member and citizen
of it. It implies respect for his fellow members, and
also respect for the community as such.”
Leopold divided conservationists into two groups:
one group that regards the soil as a commodity
and the other that regards the land as biota, with a
broad interpretation of its function. If we apply this
idea to the field of forestry, the first group of con-
servationists would grow trees like cabbages, while
the second group would strive to maintain a natural
ecosystem. Leopold maintained that the conservation movement
must be based upon more
than just economic necessity. Species with no discernible
economic value to humans may be
an integral part of a functioning ecosystem. the land ethic
respects all parts of the natural
world regardless of their utility, and decisions based upon that
ethic result in more stable
biological communities.
“Anything is right when it tends to preserve the integrity,
stability and beauty of the biotic
community. It is wrong when it tends to do otherwise.”

Leopold had two interpretations of an ethic: ecologically, it
limits freedom of action in the
struggle for existence; while philosophically, it differentiates
social from anti-social conduct.
An ethic results in cooperation, and Leopold maintained that
cooperation should include the
land.
Corbis
Prominent environmentalist Aldo
Leopold examines different species
of birds in his lab. Leopold believed
that mistreatment of land makes little
economic or moral sense and suggested
that land be included in an ethical
framework, calling this the “land ethic.”
ben85927_10_c10.indd 425 1/28/14 1:18 PM
Hetch Hetchy
In 1913, the Hetch Hetchy Valley—located in Yosemite national
Park in california—was the
site of a conflict between two factions, one with an
anthropocentric ethic and the other, a
biocentric ethic. As the last American frontiers were settled, the
rate of forest destruction
started to concern the public. the conservation movement gained
momentum, but quickly
broke into two factions. one faction, led by Gifford Pinchot,
chief Forester under teddy roo-

sevelt, advocated utilitarian conservation (i.e., conservation of
resources for the good of the
public). the other faction, led by John Muir, advocated
preservation of forests and other
wilderness for their inherent value. both groups rejected the
first tenet of frontier ethics, the
assumption that resources are limitless. However, the
conservationists agreed with the rest of
the tenets of frontier ethics, while the preservationists agreed
with the tenets of the sustain-
able ethic.
the Hetch Hetchy Valley was part of a protected national Park,
but after the devastating fires
of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, residents of San
Francisco wanted to dam the valley to
provide their city with a stable supply of water. Gifford Pinchot
favored the dam.
“As to my attitude regarding the proposed use of Hetch Hetchy
by the city of San Francisco,
am fully persuaded that ‘the injury’ by substituting a lake for
the present swampy floor of the
valley’s altogether unimportant compared with the benefits to
be derived from it’s [sic] use
as a reservoir.”
“the fundamental principle of the whole conservation policy is
that of use, to take every part
of the land and its resources and put it to that use in which it
will serve the most people.”
John Muir, the founder of the Sierra club and a great lover of
wilderness, led the fight against
the dam. He saw wilderness as having an intrinsic value,
separate from its utilitarian value

to people. He advocated preservation of wild places for their
inherent beauty and for the sake
of the creatures that live there. the issue aroused the American
public, who were becoming
increasingly alarmed at the growth of cities and the destruction
of the landscape for the sake
of commercial enterprises. Key senators received thousands of
letters of protest.
“these temple destroyers, devotees of ravaging commercialism,
seem to have a perfect con-
tempt for nature, and instead of lifting their eyes to the God of
the Mountains, lift them to the
Almighty Dollar.”
Despite public protest, congress voted to dam the valley. the
preservationists lost the fight for
the Hetch Hetchy Valley, but their questioning of traditional
American values had some last-
ing effects. In 1916, congress passed the “national Park System
organic Act,” which declared
that parks were to be maintained in a manner that left them
unimpaired for future genera-
tions. As we use our public lands, we continue to debate
whether we should be guided by
preservationism or conservationism.
The Tragedy of the Commons
In his essay, The Tragedy of the Commons, Garrett Hardin
(1968) looked at what happens
when humans do not limit their actions by including the land as
part of their ethic. the trag-
edy of the commons develops in the following way: Picture a
pasture open to all. It is to be
expected that each herdsman will try to keep as many cattle as
possible on the commons.

ben85927_10_c10.indd 426 1/28/14 1:18 PM
SEctIon 10.5Case History—tHe environmental awakening in
sport
Such an arrangement may work satisfactorily for centuries,
because tribal wars, poaching
and disease keep the numbers of both man and beast well below
the carrying capacity of the
land. Finally, however, comes the day of reckoning. the positive
component is a function of
the increment of one animal. Since the herdsman receives all the
proceeds from the sale of the
additional animal, the positive utility is nearly +1. the negative
component is a function of the
additional overgrazing created by one more animal. However, as
the effects of overgrazing are
shared by all of the herdsmen, the negative utility for any
particular decision-making herds-
man is only a fraction of –1.
the sum of the utilities leads the rational herdsman to conclude
that the only sensible course
for him to pursue is to add another animal to his herd, and then
another, and so forth. How-
ever, this same conclusion is reached by each and every rational
herdsman sharing the com-
mons. therein lies the tragedy: each man is locked into a system
that compels him to increase
his herd, without limit, in a world that is limited. ruin is the
destination toward which all men
rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that
believes in the freedom of the com-

mons. Freedom in the commons brings ruin to all. [. . .]
Hardin went on to apply the situation to modern commons. the
public must deal with the
overgrazing of public lands, the overuse of public forests and
parks and the depletion of fish
populations in the ocean. Individuals and companies are
restricted from using a river as a
common dumping ground for sewage and from fouling the air
with pollution. Hardin also
strongly recommended restraining population growth.
the “tragedy of the commons” is applicable to the environmental
problem of global warm-
ing. the atmosphere is certainly a commons into which many
countries are dumping excess
carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. Although we
know that the generation of
greenhouse gases will have damaging effects upon the entire
globe, we continue to burn fos-
sil fuels. As a country, the immediate benefit from the
continued use of fossil fuels is seen as a
positive component. All countries, however, will share the
negative long-term effects.
As a rational being, each herdsman seeks to maximize his gain.
Explicitly or implicitly, more
or less consciously, he asks: “What is the utility to me of
adding one more animal to my herd?”
this utility has both negative and positive components.
Adapted from UCCP (Content Source); Peter Saundry (Topic
Editor) “AP Environmental Science Chapter 23—
Environmental Ethics.” In: Encyclopedia of Earth. Eds. Cutler
J. Cleveland (Washington, D.C.: Environmental Infor-
mation Coalition, National Council for Science and the

Environment). First published in the Encyclopedia of Earth
November 25, 2008; last revised date November 25, 2008;
retrieved April 17, 2011, http://www.eoearth.org
/article/AP_Environmental_Science_chapter_23-
_Environmental_Ethics.
10.5 Case History—The Environmental Awakening in Sport
Of all of the human activities that might impact the
environment, sports would seem to be
among the least likely to get any attention. However, in this
reading Michael Pfahl, Assistant
Professor of Sport Management at Ohio University, describes
how organized sporting events
around the world have massive cumulative impacts on the
environment. These impacts range
from the energy used to light stadiums and get fans to and from
events to water and chemicals
used to keep playing fields and golf courses green and ready for
competition. Given the millions
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pter_23-_Environmental_Ethics
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pter_23-_Environmental_Ethics
sport
of people that either participate in or spectate at sporting events
every year, the energy, water,
material, and waste impacts of this sector quickly add up.
It might also come as some surprise to know that a growing

number of professional sports teams,
collegiate athletic programs, and individual athletes have
adopted environmental improvement
and sustainability as an important goal. Many of these
organizations and individuals are now
part of the Green Sports Alliance (GSA), a voluntary group of
sports teams, athletes, and venues
seeking to improve their environmental performance and lower
their impact. GSA members are
motivated by a number of factors, from a desire to lower
operating costs to improving public
relations and community outreach. The GSA partners with
environmental organizations and the
Environmental Protection Agency to identify ways for its
members to reduce their material and
energy use and lower their overall environmental impact.
The GSA and the emerging environmental movement in sport is
yet another indication of how
environmental concerns are aligning with other interests. The
high profile of many organized
sports teams and athletes combined with the loyal fan base that
follows them means that any
environmental initiatives undertaken by these teams and
individuals will attract a lot of atten-
tion. In that sense not only does the greening of organized
sports reduce the immediate envi-
ronmental impact of sporting events, but it also has the
potential to influence the attitudes and
behaviors of millions of other people.
By Michael Pfahl
Sport is, for the most part, an enjoyable experience drawing
billions of people to games,
events, televisions, bars, and other venues to watch athletes,
from children to highly talented

professionals, play the sports they love. Yet, this fun comes
with consequences that go beyond
the game as those individual actions are multiplied by millions
and millions of people each
year all around the world. An enormous amount of trash is
generated at sporting events, from
packaging, plates, and bottles to food waste. resources like
water and energy are used to
power the games and to keep playing fields lush. carbon
emissions from travel to and from
events by all stakeholders also factor into the calculation of
consequences.
The Inside-Out Perspective
two related perspectives exist in relation to sport and the
environment. the first is the
Inside-Out perspective where organizational personnel
understand how their activities
impact the environment. the second perspective is Outside-In
where external environmen-
tal and related issues (e.g., government regulation) impact the
operations of an organization.
In sport, most of the conceptualizations, research, and
knowledge of these issues involve the
Inside-out perspective. Energy consumed by national and
international sport events will
continue to increase as sporting leagues grow around the world.
During the 2012 Summer
olympic Games in London, 10,500 athletes participated in the
Games and 500,000 people
traveled to attend them. Seventy thousand people visited new
orleans to attend the Super
bowl in person, but many more visited the city for the events
surrounding the Super bowl, but
did not have tickets to attend the game. It was estimated that
each match at the 2006 World

cup used three million kilowatt hours of energy and produced
five to ten tons of trash—and
that was with an environmental plan developed by FIFA [the
international governing body
of football, or soccer] prior to the tournament. television
broadcasts of these events allowed
millions of people around the world to stay home, but still
generated a significant amount
ben85927_10_c10.indd 428 1/28/14 1:18 PM
sport
of resource consumption involved in the millions of nationwide
parties and general home
viewing. Events need parking, which consumes land and
resources to build and to maintain.
With more new stadia taking transportation into account when
designing facilities, there
is an improvement in transportation options (i.e., some fans and
participants travel to and
from the games by buses, bicycles, or walking), but automobile
travel followed by air travel
remain the dominant mode.
It is not just the national and international events that create
environmental problems. While
the large events garner attention, numerous lower-tier sport
events and recreational activ-
ities contribute to our environmental problems. At the
intercollegiate athletics level, mid-
major football games, like those at ohio university, have been
known to generate around two

tons of trash at their most heavily attended game, but major
programs can generate up to
three times that much each week. Local public golf courses
consume land, require constant
resource inputs, and use pesticides to control insect populations.
Ski slopes generate snow
when nature does not provide it and the local ecosystem can be
at risk by this action, espe-
cially when wastewater is used to manufacture the snow. the list
goes on, but the common
denominator is that sport and recreational activities impact the
environment, often in nega-
tive ways.
The Outside-In Perspective
the outside-In perspective comes into play as natural
environmental changes impact sport
organizations. In new orleans, for example, the aftermath of
Hurricane Katrina had a sig-
nificant effect on the city and its infrastructure, especially the
Superdome, in graphic and
enduring ways. Few people will forget the images of the
Superdome after the flooding in new
orleans. the venue was transformed from a stadium of fun and
excitement into a place of
death, despair, and tragedy. It is impossible to visit the venue
without recalling the toll of envi-
ronmental disasters. In another example, Australia’s difficulties
with drought over the years
affected its sporting industry and infrastructure as rationing and
other methods to combat
drought were undertaken. While natural conditions are often out
of the control of sport per-
sonnel, their own contributions to the outcomes of the natural
conditions, such as inhibit-
ing proper water drainage due to a facility footprint, necessitate

a balance of Inside-out and
outside-In thinking in strategic planning for environmental
activities.
regulations and legislation related to construction of sport
venues and their operations are
driving change as much as altruistic intentions. Since the 1970s
and enactment of the national
Environmental Policy Act, federal agencies must consider the
environmental impact of any
federal action. States have followed this lead, often
commissioning environmental impact
studies and reports.
In 2009 the city of Santa clara, california, undertook one of
these studies in preparation for a
new stadium for the San Francisco 49ers. the report was sent to
over 30 organizations, includ-
ing the u.S. Army corps of Engineers, california Highway
Patrol, and the cupertino Planning
Department. comments were solicited about the study and
compiled into the final report.
the study results offered a comprehensive analysis of the
holistic environmental impact of
the new stadium. this small example is part of a larger network
of laws and regulations gov-
erning construction and operations of organizations in the
united States. State environmen-
tal policy acts (SEPAs) require environmental study and
planning before any state action is
taken, although they might vary on how this is accomplished.
the SEPAs also ensure that
ben85927_10_c10.indd 429 1/28/14 1:18 PM

sport
state natural resource agencies conduct environmental reviews
of proposed projects. While
mechanisms exist to delay or to be exempt from environmental
review, the review cannot be
bypassed entirely unless a SEPA indicates a process to do so
(e.g., regulations for the timeline
to put a construction project on a ballot).
consulting organizations have been brought in. Additional local,
state, and federal laws and
regulations for environmental issues are also part of this
process, which is why sport orga-
nization personnel sought out the expertise of organizations
such as the natural resources
Defense council (nrDc) and the u.S. Green building council.
combined with regulating or
governing body guidelines from groups like the International
olympic committee, sport per-
sonnel have a complex task of accomplishing organizational
goals while accounting for envi-
ronmental issues.
Lastly, the nonprofit Green Sports Alliance
was formed in 2010 with a mission to help
sports teams, venues, and leagues enhance
their environmental performance. More
on this organization’s vital role will be dis-
cussed later in the article. [. . .]
Facility Design, Construction, and Management
to begin, facilities and stadia are clear examples of an
environmental impact. Every sport

venue is built, maintained, renovated, and demolished, and a
new one built at some point. Sta-
dia today, especially as you move up the ranks to the highest
professional levels, require more
and better amenities. Wireless access is now commonplace,
numerous food and beverage
choices are on menus to satisfy as many possible tastes as there
are fans, novelties and mer-
chandise are sold or given away to entice fans to games and
allow them to demonstrate their
fandom, and, of course, there is the never-ending demand for
parking spaces. More aspects
of the sport experience are needed if fans are to gain value from
purchasing tickets, including
the season variety where parking is a must. For every hot dog
purchased, beer or soda con-
sumed, light turned on, and field watered, however, energy and
resources are used.
It is interesting to note that facility management personnel were
early movers in the envi-
ronmental change process. What might have started with a
search for more environmentally
friendly cleaning products is now a full force effort to have
buildings built or renovated with
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)
certification. Much of the impetus
for change came over the course of the past 20 years in the form
of waste reduction and much
of this work was done to improve the customer experience (e.g.,
hand dryers in the lavatory
eliminate paper towels all over the floor and do not run out). As
new stadia are built and others
refurbished, LEED principles are increasingly added to the
planning and construction work.
In more recent years, sport personnel in other organizational

areas like marketing began
to see the strategic issues related to environmental activities,
such as community engage-
ment, revenue generation through sponsorship, and cost savings
through upgraded facilities.
Potential cost savings helped to drive the changes in facility
operations and best practices
were sought for energy savings, resource usage, and other
operational activities. today, stadia
developers and teams often compete to determine which team is
the greenest. For example,
the olympic Stadium in London was built using only a tenth of
the total steel used to build the
bird’s nest stadium in 2008 for the olympic Games in beijing.
Environmentalism is becoming
Consider This
What are the main differences between
the Inside-out and outside-In approaches
described in this reading?
ben85927_10_c10.indd 430 1/28/14 1:18 PM
sport
Event Operations
beyond the physical structures, sport leagues, teams, organizing
committees, and governing
bodies developed event-management plans that help to produce
greener games. As noted
earlier, FIFA, the governing body of soccer, built a zero-
emission headquarters and developed
guidelines for organizing committees to use when planning to

host events. the guidelines are
called Green Goal. they were initiated at the 2006 World cup in
Germany and continued for
the 2010 South African World cup. they are updated and revised
continually and take into
account local needs and abilities. the International olympic
committee has a similar set of
guidelines for host countries to follow. While organizations
such as Major League baseball do
not provide any such strict rubric, it has been active in
developing relationships to help teams.
Efforts are often local and under team control.
Local Community Engagement
An important aspect of any sports organization’s operation is
engagement with the local com-
munity. Many personnel see community engagement as a form
of corporate citizenship or
outreach. reading in schools and health issues are common
outreach contexts. However, the
environment is becoming another avenue for community
engagement. Educational opportu-
nities to reach into schools with applied environmental
problems and data to help teachers
and students study environmental impacts is one example.
Helping to understand and address
local environmental damage and degradation, even health and
wellness, is becoming impor-
tant to the fishing, golf, and outdoor sports industries as well as
professional and amateur
a key operational initiative and marketing aspect of sport,
though funding remains a constant
issue in keeping them both active and progressive.
In Major League baseball, the Washington nationals, Minnesota

twins, and San Diego Padres,
among many others, all made efforts to be the greenest team and
ballpark in the country,
making substantial commitments to environment design and
conduct in their ballpark opera-
tions. the new York Giants, Miami Heat, Portland trailblazers,
and the Montreal canadiens
also received LEED certification at some point. In fact, nrDc,
an environmental advisor to
Major League baseball and the national basketball Association,
noted as of 2012 that 15 pro-
fessional sports venues had been awarded some level of LEED
certification for new or exist-
ing structures with numerous others in various stages of such
certification. this does not
even count intercollegiate and lower-level professional and
amateur venues.
If you are a follower of sports then consider your favorite team.
If not, pick a team local to your
area. Start by visiting the web site of the Green Sports Alliance
(http://greensportsalliance
.org). Is your team already a member of the GSA? If so, click
on their name to see what efforts
they are taking to reduce their environmental impact. If not,
find your team’s web page on the
Internet and try to determine if they have undertaken any sort of
environmental initiative.
What more could sports teams in general be doing to reduce
their environmental impact?
ben85927_10_c10.indd 431 1/28/14 1:18 PM
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http://greensportsalliance.org

sport
team sports. Since sport organizations have an important and
high-profile local role, and are
beholden to many levels of governmental laws and regulations,
personnel work to integrate
their sustainability efforts with the local community. this is a
complicated issue because of
the ability for a local community, including the local business
community, to aid these efforts
(having, for instance, strong infrastructure for waste disposal or
recycling). Social pressures
from many levels—nongovernmental organizations (nGos), fans,
suppliers, league offices,
governing bodies, and universities and colleges—are driving
change, but the change is con-
textual and inconsistent across sports and within a sport itself.
[. . .]
The Times Are Changing
recycling is common at sporting events today and research has
shown that it is one of the
most frequently taken first steps in an environmental change
program at the intercollegiate
athletics level, although it is just as frequent at major sporting
venues and events. Addition-
ally, there has been a general focus on reduction in resource and
chemical usage. For example,
the St. Louis cardinals personnel estimated that 15–20 percent
of their operations budget
was devoted to energy usage. using the Environmental
Protection Agency’s EnergyStar Port-
folio Manager, the cardinals showed how “since 2007 they’ve

cut the ballpark’s energy use
by 23 percent.”
Within stadia, food and menu changes are also being made. For
example, the cleveland cava-
liers began offering an expanded vegetarian menu at their
concession stands and restaurants
in Quicken Loans Arena. Similarly, the Philadelphia Eagles, an
organization that exemplifies
environmental activism in sport, has one of the largest
vegetarian menus in sport, a com-
mitment found at every food-service level from concessions to
suites. the San Diego Padres
recently partnered with a local biofuel company to provide used
cooking oils to buses in the
surrounding school districts. Even sport stalwarts like paper-
based media guides and game
notes are going digital to reduce waste and paper usage. once
again, the Philadelphia Eagles
personnel worked to reduce paper usage. When paper is needed,
they strive to use 100 per-
cent post-consumer recycled paper. In 2004 they used about 25
tons of it, but by 2010, it was
near 50 percent of overall paper use in the Eagles offices and
overall paper usage was down
to 75 tons from a high of nearly 200 tons in 2007. Also, in
2010, of the 457 gallons of cleaning
products used by the Eagles, 169 gallons (37 percent) were from
environmentally friendly
products. [. . .]
Even individual athletes are getting involved. Athletes
including Steve nash, usain bolt, Kelly
Slater, Marta Vieira da Silva, tom Paradiso, and Leilani Münter
are visible advocates for envi-
ronmental action. they work on their own, separate from the

teams of which they’re part, to
promote an environmental message.
An Answer: The Green Sports Alliance
Without much guidance, sport personnel have been addressing
environmental issues on their
own with debates over the best pathways to environmental
sustainability. Some teams took
little to no action, while others made it a top-down imperative
to change operations. Little
data and information were shared throughout the industry;
exchanges were confined mostly
to individual associations, mega events, or personal
relationships. What was needed was a
more coordinated effort to link sport organizations together in
terms of environmental issues
ben85927_10_c10.indd 432 1/28/14 1:18 PM
sport
and to connect them to other organiza-
tions that could help them address the
environmental challenges they faced.
Enter the Green Sports Alliance, a
nonprofit organization with a mis-
sion to help sport teams, venues, and
leagues enhance their environmen-
tal performance. In February 2010
the concept of the Alliance began in
a workshop where sport personnel,
mainly from the northwest united

States, came together to discuss sus-
tainability issues, share experiences,
and to help each other address the
environmental impacts of their teams
and venues. [. . .]
realizing the benefit of building this
collaboration, the Alliance launched
nationally in March 2011 in an effort
to bring together sport personnel from
around the world to share information
and ideas about improving environmental performance industry-
wide. What started with six
professional sports teams and five venues now boasts a
membership of nearly 170 profes-
sional and collegiate sports teams and venues from 15 different
sports leagues. Scott Jen-
kins, chairman of the board for the Alliance and vice president
of ballpark operations for the
Seattle Mariners, noted, “our biggest challenge is to get
people’s attention. People are busy
and sustainability is often woven into existing responsibilities.
We need it to become a part of
their time and get their attention.”
Alliance Guiding Principles
During the Alliance’s formation, several guiding principles
shaped the strategic decisions and
actions taken by members. As a small, start-up, nonprofit
organization, the Alliance measures
its actions and activities based on the goal of providing
maximum value to its members.
Alliance members make a commitment to improve their
environmental performance. With

the support of the Alliance and its partners, members
collaborate with each other on a num-
ber of ongoing initiatives. Membership in the Alliance is open
to any sports team, venue,
league or collegiate program willing to make this commitment.
the Alliance helps its mem-
bers reach their environmental goals through direct support and
focused research, facili-
tated networking with recognized leaders in the industry,
compilation and sharing of best
practices in venue operations and team communications,
workshops, a monthly webinar
series, and much more. In short, as Hershkowitz noted, the
Alliance wants to “green the
world through sport.”
A primary principle guiding Alliance efforts is that its members
succeed when they measure
and track their environmental performance in order to drive
environmental performance
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Martin Tull, executive director of the Green Sports
Alliance, talks to reporters about the nonprofit
group’s goals. Founding teams included the Seattle
Mariners, the Seattle Sounders FC, the Portland
Trail Blazers, the Seattle Seahawks, the Vancouver
Canucks, and the Seattle Storm.
ben85927_10_c10.indd 433 1/28/14 1:18 PM
sport

improvements. this principle is grounded in the belief that you
cannot manage what you can-
not measure. understanding operations within a venue or the
administrative offices of a team
is a first step toward figuring out how to plan strategically for
immediate and future environ-
mental operations. As Jenkins said, “We need to get people
aware of issues to get anywhere.”
building upon this effort, Alliance personnel can then work with
team and venue personnel
to develop a strategic approach to environmental efforts (e.g.,
developing goals, objectives,
tactics). While the Alliance is not an auditing organization and
does not provide certification
processes, they support their members both individually and
collectively. With partners like
nrDc and the u.S. Environmental Protection Agency as technical
advisors, the Alliance helps
to guide the greening process for its members, tackling specific
challenges and sharing the
broader lessons they’ve learned. these processes are contextual
and unique to each situation,
versus a one-size-fits-all approach. [. . .]
Twists and Turns on the Environmental Path
Even though the Alliance has achieved a great deal of success
from its early days, many chal-
lenges remain. the individual team members remain heavily
weighted toward major profes-
sional sport organizations. there is a need to bring more
collegiate athletic programs and
smaller professional sport organizations into the fold. Growth of
the Alliance’s operations
must be managed, too, as it is a small organization despite its

high profile.
Additionally, the Alliance remains a north American
organization, although it has a much
stronger member base from outside this area in relation to its
venue members. continuing to
link sport organizations and venues from around the world and
to navigate the complexity of
international sport operations will be a task for the Alliance in
the long term.
continuing to understand the roles fans play in environmental
efforts is another key area on
which to concentrate. While most people do not go to sporting
events for a science lesson,
fans do play a significant role in sport’s environmental
footprint. they need to be part of the
process in order to change behaviors at events and at home in
their everyday lives. Learning
from fans and teaching them about environmental actions at
teams and venues is a growing
and critical aspect of the Alliance’s mission. connecting
corporate and nonprofit partners
with the fans is also important. [. . .]
In the end, there is a need to make environmental issues a part
of the culture of sport man-
agement and administration. Sport personnel must bring
environmental issues into opera-
tional and strategic planning. At the moment, there is
momentum, but the momentum must
be routinized into strategic planning and operational guidelines
for it to mean something two
decades from now. the Alliance is well placed to make this
happen. As Jenkins said, “We want
people to get in the game, to get involved, to join the Alliance

and to attend our summits.”
the environmental challenges our planet faces are like a race
without end. thus, the world
of sport, like all other cultural contexts, must address its
environmental impact through con-
tinuous adaptation and management.
Adapted from Pfahl, M. (2013, July). The Environmental
Awakening in Sport.
Solution
s, 4(3), 67–76. Retrieved from
http://www.thesolutionsjournal.com/node/23881 Used by
permission of

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