Companies jump on the green bandwagon for Earth Hour - JamesMurraysBlog - National - 3 News
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Companies jump on the green bandwagon for Earth Hour

Sat, 28 Mar 2009 11:49a.m.

On my desk at the moment is a CD from the Warehouse. On that CD is a word document and a jpeg.

On that word document I am informed proudly that the Warehouse plan to charge for plastic bags and sell reusable bags for 99 cents.

The jpeg is a photo of a reusable bag; the bag is empty – much like the Warehouse’s gesture.

Have they not heard of email, is it necessary to send out what would presumably be a reasonably size batch of CDs to advertise this fact? People are quite likely to notice of their own accord after all.

Big companies jumping on the Green bandwagon is of course necessary if we want to progress with the general shrinkage of our carbon footprint – but do they have to be so two-faced about it.

The top firms have lined up eagerly to support Earth Hour, an effort to get one billion people to turn off their lights for an hour at 8pm this Saturday night, but how many of them regularly shut down their computers at night.

Or for that matter turn off office lights at night.

The concept itself is a good one, even if it is largely symbolic the sheer scale of the campaign will at least get a large number of people and businesses thinking about their energy usage.

They have a very informative website, from which they have promoted the Earth Hour – I am almost certain they have not been sending out CDs or reusable bags.

So, at 8pm on Saturday night, have a look out of the curtains and if you see a Warehouse sign lighting up the night sky you can rest assured that they are making up for this with their reusable bags.

Something brought to my attention this week:

Websites that donate food to charity if you play their games or visit their sponsors.

My favourite is www.freerice.com; for every word definition you get right the site’s sponsors donate 10 grains of rice.

A whole list of similar sites can be found here: http://www.experienceproject.com/mk/all-trivia-games.php

James Murray's blog
We are increasingly using new forms of media to get our news. From the news websites of television stations and newspapers to blogs and social networking sites, information has never been so readily available.
 
But new media is very much a frontier technology with Wild West morals to match - can we trust these news sources and how do they affect the national debate? Does new media bring us closer together or drive us further apart?
 
Views on the news looks at the stories at the cutting edge of the media.
 
James Murray is the Chief Editor of 3news.co.nz.
 
If you would like to send me a message email me at jmurray@mediaworks.co.nz.

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