How green is green?
Thursday, April 19th, 2007 by Nigel
Sigh. If only being green was simple.
Here????‚¬??„?s a story. An old and valued customer emailed me recently. She????‚¬??„?d read a note on my newsletter in which I recommended people check out the green energy companies Ecotricity and Good Energy ????‚¬??€? both of which Nigel????‚¬??„?s Eco Store has a good relationship with.
She????‚¬??„?d also come across a website called WhichGreen ????‚¬??€? tagline Which Energy Suppliers Really Are Green? - whose front page has a rating table of 10 British energy companies. Ecotricity comes top; the shocker is Good Energy comes equal bottom - next to Powergen.
Which doesn????‚¬??„?t look good, does it? Understandably, this customer was concerned that I was promoting something which wasn????‚¬??„?t as green as it claimed.
There’s more to it, of course. What the front page of WhichGreen doesn????‚¬??„?t really say is that it is a site run by Ecotricity. In the smaller print, they explain they????‚¬??„?ve rated the companies by
the pound per customer expenditure on building new energy capacity
Which yardstick puts Ecotricity firmly at the top of the chart, because ????‚¬??€? laudiby ????‚¬??€? they invest in new wind farms and other renewable sources.
Ecotricity????‚¬??„?s green mission is to increase the supply of renewable energy and they????‚¬??„?re using their customer base to help them do that.
But to take this as a chart of “which green energy suppliers are really green” as Which Green claims, is stretching a point a little. But that????‚¬??„?s the problem with so many green products. What, exactly, is green?
According to a report on green energy tariffs published by the National Consumer Council, Ecotricity source roughly 25% of their power from renewable sources ????‚¬??€? the rest is made up of energy from coal, nuclear and gas. In contrast, Good Energy source 100% of their energy from renewables.
As the NCC report makes clear,
For those customers who want a green electricity supply, pure and simple, [Good Energy] is probably the closest they can get to it.
See? Change the meaning of what you call green and you get the total opposite of WhichGreen’s conclusion. To be fair, Ecotricity think the priority is to tip the balance of energy supply towards renewables ????‚¬??€? that????‚¬??„?s why they????‚¬??„?re so keen on investing in new windfarms. But that’s the category on which they base their eco beauty contest.
I get this all the time. We????‚¬??„?re all judging each other????‚¬??„?s green-ness by our own standards, our own set of objectives. The bad thing about this is it makes for a gigantic, off-putting muddle for consumers.
And Ecotricity????‚¬??„?s WhichGreen website - which appears at first sight to be a straightforward consumer site - doesn????‚¬??„?t really help much.
As the NCC report says, there are too many ways to judge what green really is, and there are plenty of other deals you can get ????‚¬??€? including Good Energy????‚¬??„?s - which have a much firmer commitment to giving customers renewable-source energy right now. Ecotricity’s meaning of “green” - not necessarily everyone’s.
As for me, I stand by my endorsement of both companies. They????‚¬??„?re both the good guys, and I don????‚¬??„?t think we should lose sight of that. We????‚¬??„?re aiming to get to the same place ????‚¬??€? it????‚¬??„?s just about different ways of getting there. It????‚¬??„?s up to consumers to decide their priorities are and choose which one they want to light up their lives.
Photo by JohnnyAlive
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