It didn't really hit me how in vogue "green" has become until I was stuck in traffic recently, breathing exhaust from that monument to capitalism ... a Hummer. There on the bumper was ..."Think Green."  I stopped singing with the radio (my personal contribution to air pollution), put down my single-use - but recyclable - plastic bottle of Diet Coke, and said out loud ... "What's that supposed to mean?"
Once upon a time not so very long ago, the word "green" described money, unripe fruit, feeling sick or jealous, being inexperienced, several comic book characters, and even the color you get by mixing blue and yellow.  But these meanings have been all but eclipsed by one that suggests a product, service or lifestyle beneficial to that other catch-all term ... the environment.  Green is now everywhere ... as in green buildings, green cars, green power and green products.

And now, a "Think Green" bumper sticker.  I've been in marketing all my professional life, usually trying to promote an idea, a product or a service, and have used just about every possible communication vehicle including magic and hot air balloons. But I've never liked bumper stickers in general ... and I didn't like this one in particular. Most bumper stickers fall well short of being clever, funny, provocative, or wise. And it seems the more important or even catastrophic the topic or cause they attempt to extol, the more they seem to trivialize or obscure it in meaning or magnitude.  Indignantly I denounced the two words in front of me - "Think Green" - as conveying only half a message and not worth the tree that died to make the paper they were printed on. They don't begin to explain what green is ... that whole spectrum of knowledge and action that constitutes living a sustainable life and securing a sustainable future. The truth is, I can hardly begin to explain it either ... but I decided that experiencing it is worth a shot.

Through this column I invite you to follow the green brick road with me, a path of discovery on which we'll give life to the idea of living green. We'll look at some of the green promises made by companies and organizations that have jumped on the Save the Planet bandwagon, making a whole lot of another kind of green in the process. We'll engage in a bit of reading comprehension - and maybe play a few rounds of Buzzword Bingo - by confronting some of the terms, slogans and studies used to designate a product or practice as greener than another. And I'll follow the advice of someone truly clever, funny, provocative and wise, by embracing my aversion to bumper stickers and using some to share one particular family's (mine) less-than-excellent green adventures. I hope you'll speak up as we travel along; left on my own I may start singing again.