"Going Green"

The Innovation Diaries

Going green is probably something that we've all become familiar with.  It is the process of switching to environmentally friendly products and to try to cut down on our own contributions to the national carbon footprint.  Those two simple words have a lot behind them in terms or rhetoric and civic engagement.

With regard to the rhetorical effect of color, Going green holds a lot of persuasion.  The fact that the word "green" is part of this slogan or even movement is important.  Green has a lot of positive things associated with it and therefore, it has a very positive effect on people.  Green can be used to show that things are natural, healthy, and calm.  All of these things would make a person feel good and it makes going green seem like a really good thing to do.  Also, the obvious of thing associated with the color green is money.  This helps portray the idea that going green can save you money.  While for most "green" products, you do not save immediately, in the long run you will save some money.

The phrase can also be seen as a promoter of civic engagement.  It pushes people to do their part.  A lot of this is done through the use of color as stated previously, but "going" shows that some sort of motion or action is required in order for us to be green.  We have to "go" green which means it is a process.  It is something that needs to be done as individuals in order for an effect to be truly seen.  These two words convince us to do something as individuals.  Going green implies that being environmentally friendly is not only a good thing, but also that taking the steps towards being environmentally friendly is what needs to be done to make an impact.  In this way, I think that these two words really do promote civic engagement and essentially tell the public that unless they are active citizens that voice their opinions on the matter and take part in the process themselves, nothing will really change.

I just thought it would be interesting to look at the effect that just two words can have on people.  Obviously, there are a ton of other rhetorical techniques employed through environmentally friendly advertisements and things of that nature, but the fact that "going green" can have a relatively profound effect is fascinating.