SALES PITCH: A GUILT-FREE SUV
Picture the new wave in conservation: a tree-hugging, socks-and-Birkenstocks, environmentally friendly … SUV?
A $60,000, eight-cylinder, 12 mile-per-gallon Land Rover as the car for the environmentally conscious might seem like an oxymoron. But it is just the latest seeming contradiction in a world where gun-toting conservationists, evangelical environmentalists and carbon-neutral corporations are increasingly the norm.
Land Rover Las Vegas says it achieves that balance of luxury and responsibility by purchasing carbon offsets – which aim to mitigate the effects of carbon emissions by planting CO2-absorbing trees – for every new and used SU it sells.
It’s a controversial way to have your Rover and drive it, too. To take it out for a guilt-free spin knowing that your Powered by Carbon Offset Credits bumper sticker will elicit a thumbs up from other drivers, not that other, less wholesome gesture.
In many ways, Las Vegas – where ostentation and conservation coexist, though somewhat uncomfortably – could be ground zero for the ecological consumerism movement. Read full story:
