Sierra Club green jobs hypocrisy follow-up

Last night, I blogged about Sierra’s trumpeting its participation in the Green Jobs for American program, along with NRDC and the Steelworkers, but noted that, in the past, tchotchkes for membership renewals seem to not come from this country.

So I e-mailed, direct to Executive Director Carl Pope, asking if the gimme garden back offered on an envelope flier inside the latest issues of Sierra mag, came from inside the U.S. or not.

Per Sierra Club’s Director of Marketing Membership Johanna O’Kelly, that would be a big nugatory on their tchotchke backpacks creating green jobs in the U.S. of A. Via e-mail:

Our Green Jobs initiative revolves around jobs that are focused on providing eco-preferable products/services from energy and energy-saving devices to organic materials. Unfortunately, backpacks do not usually fall into that Green category since they have to meet certain basic criteria for consumers’ usage, such as water resistant, light weight, durable, etc.

Backpacks do relate well to our mission as we were formed as an outings
organizations with the thought that if you get someone outdoors, they are much more likely to help protect those places. Our bags are made overseas in one of several factories that have been inspected by a US auditing company of our choosing for meeting our workplace code of conduct standards. They are well made and last a long time and thus stay out of the waste stream longer as well.

So, let me unpack this big steaming pile of crapola, per the follow-up questions I e-mailed to O’Kelley.

1. Doesn’t fuel costs for shipping from China (unless Sierra discloses what country these gimme gifts come from, China is the empirically logical assumption) count as part of the green issue?

2. Doesn’t the higher pollution from Chinese factories, Chinese coal-fired electric plants, etc. count as part of the green issue?

3. In your second sentence, it sounds like you're saying, in essence, that American manufacturers can't make something that good, or at least, they can't make something that good at Chinese sweat equity wages. Well, just as people like Michael Klare note that U.S. military costs ought to be factored into the “true” cost of oil, shouldn't Chinese environmental degradation be factored into the "true" cost of Made in China?

4. If you want (to hand out) a tchotchke, why not hook the Sierra wagon to the carbon-offset star and plant 10 trees in the name of each member upon renewal?

And, that fourth comment was not meant as snark. I seriously mean that.

Sierra with your bags, WWF with your stuffed pandas and polar bears, and any other enviro groups passing out cheap made in China crap, STOP! Especially if you’re going to claim you’re trying to great more environmentally-based jobs in America.

In a follow-up e-mail, O’Kelley’s eyes may have opened:

On the fuel costs, you’re right I need to do that calculation again since it has been so long. … I think it is pretty fuel efficient but I need to probably figure this again. And we only have the factories do cut and sew — no mfg. And you are right about the US. mfg. There so few factories left. But again, as I mentioned before we do have these places inspected. You can go here for more info: http://www.fairlabor.org/all/code/index.html

And as for premiums, we test a myriad of things and we go with whatever produces the most membership sign-ups. We have not tried carbon offsets but have tried things such as compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) which unfortunately did not work well. Maybe we will give the carbon offset a try sometime although we find that most people want something tangible for themselves ... but maybe I’ll try it though. Thanks for the idea.