Nestle Waters went for the gold and got it. A LEED Gold Certification that is for their water bottling facility in Penn. What happened to the automatic disqualification for buildings that enable environmental destruction? Oh wait, the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) doesn't take a facility's purpose into account when handing out certifications.
So Nestle's Pure Life facility can boast about their gold status even though the plastic water bottles the plant spits out require crude oil for production, leach toxic chemicals and pile up in our landfills where they'll never biodegrade. The green design saves enough energy each year to heat 125 homes for a season, conserves about 222,000 gallons of water a year and reduced construction waste by about 75 percent or the weight of 2,300 cars. They're also offsetting two years of power through Choose Renewables.
So was it just another greenwashing PR stunt? Nestle does have five other LEED certified buildings and three other under review. But we'll never know if Nestle wants to green their facilities to improve their less than eco image, or if they genuinely want to do good for the environment. Maybe they feel guilty about their eco sins?
So Nestle's Pure Life facility can boast about their gold status even though the plastic water bottles the plant spits out require crude oil for production, leach toxic chemicals and pile up in our landfills where they'll never biodegrade. The green design saves enough energy each year to heat 125 homes for a season, conserves about 222,000 gallons of water a year and reduced construction waste by about 75 percent or the weight of 2,300 cars. They're also offsetting two years of power through Choose Renewables.
So was it just another greenwashing PR stunt? Nestle does have five other LEED certified buildings and three other under review. But we'll never know if Nestle wants to green their facilities to improve their less than eco image, or if they genuinely want to do good for the environment. Maybe they feel guilty about their eco sins?
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