Are you Light Green, Dark Green, or Bright Green?

We all want a better future for our planet, but how should we get there? 

Environmental advocacy comes in many shapes and sizes, with different people and movements offering different ideas about the best way forward. One way of describing the difference between these approaches is by taking the spectrum of ideas and making it a spectrum of colour! 

So what are light green, dark green, and bright green environmentalism, and what shade are you? Read on to find out…

Light Green

Light green environmentalists believe in the collective impact of personal responsibility. Advocates of light green environmentalism stress the importance of the choices we make every day. If we all make enough small changes to the way we shop, travel, eat, and entertain ourselves we can prevent and reverse environmental damage.

The rapid rise in popularity of plant-based milk alternatives is light green environmentalism at work. In the last few years “milks” made from oats, soy, rice, and nuts have become commonplace. Many of us now prefer them in our hot drinks, cereals, and smoothies. The CO2e emissions associated with dairy are at least three times higher than alternatives, so this simple switch has a massive impact. Especially in a nation of tea-drinkers!

Light green environmentalists also believe in the importance of raising awareness about everyday habits that are damaging our environment, to nudge people towards better choices. Most UK shops no longer offer disposable plastic bags, with sturdier re-useable bags now in favour, and this has had a knock-on effect of encouraging people to look again at the single-use plastic in their shopping baskets, and seek out alternatives.

All of these little changes make a difference, but are they enough? Maybe not, according to the next category.

Dark Green 

Dark green environmentalists take a more radical stance. They argue that prioritising the environment means looking away from what individuals are doing, and making bigger, collective changes. 

If you are more dark green, you don’t think problems of sustainability can be sufficiently addressed by changes to shopping habits. In fact, you’re probably concerned that shopping is part of the problem - excessive consumerism and the drive for profits are causing the manufacture, distribution, and disposal of a huge amount of things that nobody really needs. 

Dark Green environmentalists look beyond what we can do as individuals to what we can do as in a group. They organise as communities to change legislation and seek local solutions for global problems.

Most of the Naked Sprout team are based in Brighton, and our neighbours just down the road in Lewes offer a great example of dark green environmentalism. In 2007 a network of Lewes residents joined the movement for Transition Towns. This means they are creating and promoting local projects for renewable energy, food supply, and more. You can visit the Lewes Transition Town website to find out more about the fantastic work they are doing, and get some ideas for your own neighbourhood..  

So that’s light green and dark green, but there’s one more shade, and it’s where you’ll find Naked Sprout.

Bright Green

Bright Green Environmentalism is focused on the future. Where other forms of environmentalism focus on conserving and maintaining what we already have, Bright Green environmentalists stress that necessity is the mother of invention. They believe technological innovation and human ingenuity will play a crucial role in creating a sustainable future.

This is a perspective characterised by optimism. The global sustainability crisis presents grave challenges, but human beings have shown themselves to be capable of rapid adaptation in the past, and we will again. Great strides towards more sustainable norms in architectural design, technology, and energy supply are not only possible, they are happening; improvements come faster and faster all the time. These changes don’t just maintain the status quo, they make life better for everyone. 

At Naked Sprout we are Bright Green and growing! While other eco toilet rolls focus only on the raw materials in an attempt to conserve trees, we are forging ahead with ambitious targets to reduce our climate footprint. To borrow a phrase from the writer Alex Steffen who first coined the green spectrum, we aren’t just being the change we wish to see in the world, we are mass producing change. 

This means overhauling our energy supply so we use onsite renewables in our circuits and our furnaces, re-imagining recycled tissue to take advantage of the huge surplus of waste cardboard delivery boxes, even changing the adhesive we use to a by-product derived from pine-sap.

Having done all this we calculate our climate footprint in painstaking detail, and publish our figures, in the hope that this will encourage the rest of our industry to follow suit.

In Conclusion

So that’s light green, dark green, and bright green environmentalism. At Naked Sprout we are firmly on the bright side of things, but at the end of the day we need every shade of green we can get. Personal choices, community organising, and technological innovations are all going to be part of a better future. 

We’re proud to be part of the green rainbow at Naked Sprout, and we’re optimistic about what we, our customers, and our suppliers are going to be able to achieve together. 

Want to join in the Bright Green Revolution?