Ridiculous!

Sitting at my computer staring at the screen for 2.0 hours now. Why? I need product here at the inn, and am slogging through a ridiculous amount of vendors BS products that claim to be "eco-friendly" and/or possess "green" characteristics. After these 2.0 hours stolen from my life, what do I have to show for it? Confusion, mass confusion.

We source as many items locally as possible, in all aspects of our business. This includes salvaging construction materials from places like Habitat for Humanity, buying food from local gardeners, buying vintage linens and such from yard sales, etc. and well you get my drift. Sometimes, however, I must source items out of my area, and go online. "Green" is trendy. Shall I say "green is the new black," haha? There's a danger in all this trendiness, its called green-washing, which essentially is when something is marketed as eco-friendly, when its really not. I learned the hard way on this.

I was sourcing bedding for our B&B a while ago. I came upon a well-intentioned hotel supplier offering what appeared to be just what I hoped for... easy care, stylish, and eco-friendly. When the product arrived, it came without any labeling whatsoever. None. No country of origin, no product content, no RN number. I was not happy with this, so I contacted the supplier. I admit, my representative was very responsive to my concerns, and provided prompt information for each query I had. What the week long investigation finally led to was me being supplied a copy of a document that had been redacted somewhat (by whom, I have no idea, but I suspect it was NOT redacted by the supplier, rather it was the manufacturer). The document was from the product manufacturer, in China. What I purchased was not what I thought I was buying, content-wise. There was a low percentage of post-consumer recycled content, and what was supposedly so "eco-friendly" about the cotton content was the simple fact that it was cotton. Cotton itself is NOT eco-friendly necessarily, mostly because it is often grown with pesticides, and to make matters worse, the processing & manufacturing techniques are often highly damaging to our environment. Not to mention that there was no indication previously of this product being manufactured in China, half way around the world. If I had been provided with the true information when I was shopping on line, this inferior product never would have made it to Deer Run. But, I was duped. I sent it back. To the credit of the distributor, they too had their own concerns about the product once my experience occurred, but there's a caveat here. Today, shopping on line I came across that same supplier, and same product. I noted that they did however clean up the description quite a bit, and clearly are not marketing it as it was when I was shopping.

So, what I am getting to is this. It shouldn't be this complicated to buy eco-friendly and organic products. I need some things here that I must buy new, but instead find myself 1.5 hours into the process more confused than ever. Im' also instead blogging about the experience when I should've been all finished shopping and outside doing my daily run (today in the rain).

Almost every company I've looked at today fails to provide full product descriptions or country of origin, despite the fact the items I'm viewing are clustered under their "green living supplies" section. The charlatans are out there in full force. If we cannot get what we need as consumers, make our voices known. I've written to every company on line that I found a problem with descriptions advising them of my concerns, and that I intend to move ahead to the next supplier in line to source what I need, until I get what I want. I am an informed consumer, and use my money to support companies with responsible marketing techniques, and ethics. This often results in us paying full retail from companies (here, I'll name one: Gaiam, yes we buy from Gaiam. No company is perfect, but they do offer products with full disclosure, and make great efforts to source responsibly). This is an important choice, and this morning's experience reminds me why I'm drawn to the tried and true so to speak. I have to make the decision time and time again of putting my money where my mouth is. So, the gloves are off yet again big hotel supply companies. I've got money to spend, but you don't want to take it? Step up to the plate everyone, be a leader, not a follower. Damn I'm cranky right now!

I can't help buy wonder, why does it have to be so difficult!??? I want my 2 hours back!