My word: eco-bling
Good words, Words words words
Weedy rooftop wind turbines. Solar panels that are built for show, not sustainability. Labelling this tokenistic green technology as eco-bling is the first step to defeating it, says Futerra director Ed Gillespie.
Ed Gillespie
What’s wrong with eco-bling? Well, for a start, engineers have said that unnecessary renewable energy visibly attached to the outside of poorly-designed buildings won’t help us meet emissions targets.
“Eco-bling is like greenwash for the built environment,” says Ed. “You’re not actually getting to the heart of your product or service, you’re just trying to retrospectively or retroactively add a green embellishment onto it.”
But aren’t such grandiose gestures part of human nature? “Maybe eco-bling is the modern equivalent of putting a flag on your wigwam or painting your cave,” he says. “It’s putting something out there to change the perception of your building and to make it seem high status.”
Labelling the problem as eco-bling is an important part of changing attitudes, Ed insists. “I think the term greenwash has helped tremendously — giving dubious behaviour a label that people can recognise. The power of an idea like labelling is huge. Clothes swapping isn’t a jumble sale any more, it’s swishing. It’s glamorous, exciting and edgy.”
So how would Ed make energy-efficient measures like insulating your office sound as sexy as the eco-bling he’d like them to replace? “It’s about status and social proof,” he says. “We need to find other ways of badging and labelling well-designed buildings. It needs to be something you can display, something that looks good and something that’s sexier than BREEAM, which you have to be a technology geek to understand.”
How to make green buildings stand out without resorting to eco-bling. That’s one to think about. Thanks Ed.