This is why: I asked for a coffee at the counter. The woman behind it wordlessly passed me a paper cup. And the paper cup had these words printed on it:

I repeat: For a sustainable future.

What a nice touch to write this on a disposable item. This is one of the most elegant greenwashing jobs Ecomorons.org has witnessed so far. Congrats, De Young Café!

There is more. While sipping my drink I noticed signs on all the tables. Under the headline “The capacity of our planet is not limitless” they stated:

We are very mindful of the impact we are making on our environment and our intention is to tread lightly on our planet. (…) In the café, we use china every day to serve you and we encourage you to use paper only when you are eating outside of the café.

I looked around and saw that all guests who had sat down indoors with drinks were using paper cups. Then I looked around even more and my eagle eyes detected a neat row of porcelain mugs on a shelf in the staff-only area behind one of the counters. I assume they keep them up there as decoration. Which is a wise decision, because that way they’ll never break.

(photos: Marshall Astor via Flickr, Backhouse Images)

Hahaha.
Love your great sense of humor, guys. Especially, since you demonstrate such a firm grasp of environmental and energy issues by leaving your door wide open on a winter day when the outdoor temperature is 55 Fahrenheit / 13 Celsius. Thank you so much for heating the mall at Paseo Colorado in Pasadena, CA. All the people who hid their heads under woolen scarves that day (see pic below) certainly appreciated your efforts.

Note to Store Manager: When we first saw what you do, we were really pissed off. Then we tried to find explanations. Because there just must be some kind of reason for this. We finally came to the conclusion that you have obviously been held hostage in a mountain cave in Uruguay for the last, say, twelve years. Hence you were cut off from all news sources that luckier people like us had readily available. We are sorry about that. And now please get a newspaper subscription. Connect to the Internet. And shut that fucking door.

(photos: Backhouse Images)

Seen in: Twentynine Palms, CA
Climate zone: arid desert climate
Official lawn name: Roadrunner Dunes Golf Course
Note to owner: Do not give way to the Mojave! Sprinkle it! Green it! Squash the dusty bastard!

(photo: Michael R. Swigart via Flickr)

I looked for a bicycle stand and found the above nothingness.
Where: Whole Foods Market, Pasadena, CA. “The largest Whole Foods Market west of the Rockies”, according to a company press release. It also states that “this new 2 story, 76,770 square foot store will be the next evolution of Whole Foods Market, designed to exceed its customers’ expectations (…)”
Sounds great.
These are the options for customers who arrive by bike:
1) Park in spot pictured above.
2) Park at (usually already taken) bus stop sign, thereby half blocking the sidewalk.
3) Park at cunningly hidden sub-standard bike stand 137 steps away from the front door, next to the parking garage entrance. If you can’t see it at first – look harder. Look BEHIND THE TRASHCAN. Happy shopping!

(photo: Backhouse Images)

This is the nicest sign we’ve seen in a long time. Our reporter snapped this pic a few days ago in Burbank, CA. Ikea started charging money for their plastic bags in the US in March 2007. In the UK, the company managed to reduce plastic bag consumption at their check-outs by 95 percent.

Today, the L.A. Times printed an editorial that is in favor of governments putting a fee on plastic sacs – which is currently illegal in California, due to an idiotic bill passed in 2006 (AB 2449) that was meant to promote in-store recycling. As long as that weird provision is not repealed, discouraging customers from using disposable bags is up to the stores. Go, Ikea!

Read why plastic bags are worse than you ever thought here and here (PDF from Healthebay.org). And here:

A recent staff report for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors (PDF) about carryout bags in L.A. County mentions the hidden costs of plastic bags for consumers. The average shopper makes the store spend $18 per year to provide him with free plastic bags. And the store will make sure to get those $18 back via increased product prices. In other words, we all pay 18 bucks per year for this nation’s bad bagging habit. What a mess.

(photo: Backhouse Images)

The issue: Suspiciously naive reporting about the most decadent, noisy and annoying way some Americans spend their spare time – driving off-road recreational vehicles
Seen in: Today’s L.A. Times; headline “Kicking Up Sand”
Tag line: “Side-by-side, UTV, MUV . . . whatever the name, they’re fun.”
What’s missing: The sentence “Burning gas for fun is wrong, you morons!”
The obvious explanation for the omission: Some evil off-road driver spiked staff writer Susan Carpenter’s drink on deadline day. And her editor’s, too…
We hope Ms Carpenter will get better soon.

Also, we recommend some reading material from the Sierra Club to speed up the recovery.

ORVs (off-road vehicles) emit large amounts of pollution, including carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, and carcinogens such as benzene. The small, inefficient two-stroke engines of some of these machines spew out as much as 30 percent of their fuel unburned – polluting the soils, air, and water of our National Forests, National Parks, and other public lands.
(…)
Off-road vehicles are allowed on 93% of the 264 million acres managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Although ORV users represent only a small percentage of the total number of people recreating on public lands – they are having a disproportionately large and harmful impact. Since the roar of motors can be heard by people and wildlife miles away, these vehicles can ruin the experience for those who choose to experience the outdoors without motorized vehicles.

(photo: Backhouse Images)

BREAKING NEWS – The Ecomorons Greenwashing award for the month of December goes to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) and their Holiday Light Festival. Congratulations!

What is the Light Festival?
The annual event consists of multiple displays made of light bulbs and LEDs that mainly depict local landmarks, such as Griffith Observatory, City Hall and the Los Angeles aqueduct. For almost six weeks during the holiday season these illuminate a one-mile stretch of Crystal Springs Drive at the base of Griffith Park.

Why do the organizers get an award?
For giving a whole new meaning to the term “green”, which they very creatively used on the Light Festival website in this context:

To demonstrate our commitment to a “greener” LA, the Holiday Light Festival will be a pedestrian only event from November 21 through November 25.

So the LADWP made the Festival pedestrian-friendly on 5 out of 40 nights?
Yepp. And their thoughtful commitment extends even further. The LADWP managed to have bicyclists banned from Crystal Springs Drive – a public road – for the duration of the event. (Cyclists were allowed one sneak preview on a solitary night before the official opening of the Festival.)

How much greener can you get?
A lot. The LADWP also encouraged Angelenos to view the displays from their slowly moving cars, edging along in bumper-to-bumper traffic and clogging up the whole neighborhood.

Sounds great! How did the LADWP achieve that?
By making walking as unpleasant as possible. Pedestrians had to hike next to the event-related traffic jam, on the opposite side of the street from the lights displays. Again, we would like to thank the LADWP for making this Holiday season greener then ever.

Was there an Honorable Mention in the Greenwashing Award for December?
Yeah, the LADWP snatched that one up, too, for providing us with the following info about the above mentioned Light Festival on the Festival website:

This festival symbolizes LADWP’s proud history and shared legacy of service to the people of the city.

Now, the jury couldn’t find anyone with the ability to explain what a “shared legacy of service” is. But we are all the more certain about the meaning of the phrase “proud history”. And the proud history of the LADWP conjures up the image of the dusty bed of Owens Lake (dry due to historic LADWP activities instigated in the early 20th century by William Mulholland, who got his own celebratory display at December’s event). Pondering LADWP history, we also vaguely remember that the complete destruction of the Mono Lake ecosystem (courtesy of the water diversions of the LADWP) could only be stopped via court order. We congratulate the LADWP to its proud history as well as to its Honorable Mention!

O.k. – just one more: the Special Additional Greenwashing Commendation for December goes to…
…the LADWP! They owe their unprecedented winning streak to one further unique feature on their company website: a rather curious article about Mulholland’s life and achievements, which neither mentions his questionable methods of acquiring water rights in the Owens Valley, nor his collapsed St. Francis Dam that caused 450 deaths and the end of his career in the year 1928.

For more rants about the Holiday Light Festival, see IlluminateLA, here and here. And an op-ed piece by L.J. Williamson in the L.A. Times.

(photos: “Going Green” by Melissa Acedera – check out her photo blog Melle Music; “LADWP Arch” by Chester Paul Sgroi; “God Bless America” by Raphael Mazor via Flickr)

The original post was modified on January 4, 2008. For aesthetic reasons the original arch/traffic jam image was replaced by the one you can see now.

We are proud to announce the winners of our Insane Christmas Lights Photo Contest!
We decided to declare two champions. One is the maker of the above movie, Martin from Hamburg. The jury deemed his entry prize-worthy for two reasons. First, his nicely choreographed film shows insane Christmas lights that we never knew were legal. Second, by sending in a movie instead of a photograph he totally broke the rules of this contest and put himself at an unfair advantage. Congratulations!
The other first prize goes to Ivo from Hamburg, because his entry first brought to our (and his co-winner’s) attention the existence of the house shown in the movie. Again, congratulations!

Both winners will receive a beautifully made bees wax candle in the mail soon.

An Honorable Mention for the most bizarrely off-topic entry goes to Lothar from Germany for this picture:

Ecomorons warmly thanks everybody who participated in this contest, either by sending in a pic or by cheering us on with their emails!

Jenna from Washington DC sent us this image, which she stole from Dave’s camera chip to enter it in this photo contest. We like it a lot, because we think you can never have enough insane smiles in your front yard!

(photo: Dave)

This lovely image is brought to us by Martin from Hamburg, Germany. He went on a little photography spree in his home town just hours before the deadline for this photo contest, which ended on Christmas Eve at Midnight, Pacific Time.
Please take note of the snow, which the owners hauled in front of their house last week. According to Martin, the rest of the city is completely snow-free at the moment. He writes: “What I didn’t manage to capture is that some of these displays don’t just blink, but they also beep ‘jungle bells’ in midi sound.” We are in awe.

(photo: Martin)