A Year in the Greenhouse

John Elkington believed that 1989 would be a watershed year for the environmental cause. "A Year in the Greenhouse" is his account of that year. World leaders woke up to the environmental threat and in Britain the Green Party had its first real success with the European elections. Industry recognized the need to be green - John Elkington and his company undertook to report on the environmental performance of giants such as British Telecom, Volvo and Procter & Gamble. Manufacturers too could no longer ignore the fact that the "green consumer" was a force to be reckoned with; products labelled "non-chlorine bleached", "phosphate-free" and "ozone-friendly" flooded the market. TV screens were filled with images of burning rainforests and massive oil spills; every paper carried headlines on "Green" issues and the crumbling of the Berlin Wall opened up Eastern Europe and its environmental problems to the West. But just what are the implications of events such as the "Exxon Valdez" disaster, the floundering of a Russian nuclear submarine off Norway or the tumbling of regimes around the world? How will the worldwide problems of population and pollution affect the future of our planet?
From meetings with Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund, to advising Prince Charles and Bob Geldof, to speaking in a string of European capitals, this work recounts the author's involvement in the environmental movement.