Cashing in on Earth Day

Forty years on, Earth Day in New York City no longer brings a million people to Central Park or shuts down Fifth Avenue. But it might bring in millions for corporations looking to cash in on a public that wants to feel good about its relationship with the planet:

Forty years later, the day has turned into a premier marketing platform for selling a variety of goods and services, like office products, Greek yogurt and eco-dentistry.

For this year’s celebration, Bahama Umbrella is advertising a specially designed umbrella, with a drain so that water “can be stored, reused and recycled.” Gray Line, a New York City sightseeing company, will keep running its buses on fossil fuels, but it is promoting an “Earth Week” package of day trips to green spots like the botanical gardens and flower shopping at Chelsea Market.

F. A. O. Schwarz is taking advantage of Earth Day to showcase Peat the Penguin, an emerald-tinted plush toy that, as part of the Greenzys line, is made of soy fibers and teaches green lessons to children. The penguin, Greenzys promotional material notes, “is an ardent supporter of recycling, reusing and reducing waste.”

Read the rest at The New York Times , which even ran a special section in today’s print edition called the “Business of Green”—a move that, for the more cynical among us, could be seen as an attempt to, well, cash in on Earth Day.