By John DeFore

Buying something new may not be the soul of environmentalism, but of course some products are greener than others, and rare is the eco-extremist who buys nothing at all. So it’s no surprise to see a crowded marketplace in the corner of Amazon.com devoted to Earth-friendly goods.

Fully aware of the appeal of user interaction and updated ranking (Amazon’s continuously updated best-seller lists long ago gave authors a new way of obsessing over their sales), the company has organized a Green 3 page in which customers are encouraged to “pick 3 green products you wish everyone had” and see how they stack up against others’ preferences.

Somewhat suspiciously, Amazon’s own Kindle electronic book holds the #10 spot as of this writing. Sure, such gizmos will save a lot of trees if they get enough mainstream traction to do for books what the iPod has helped do to CDs — but the battery-operated Kindle has a hard time competing for green cred with a push-style lawn mower. The rest of the list is populated with usual suspects: energy-saving light bulbs, recycled paper goods, biodegradable cleaners and — of course — reusable shopping bags. (A reasonably priced example of the latter is currently #1 on the list.)

The upper ranks of the Green 3, though, aren’t always inspiring, leading at least one observer to reject the campaign as unproductive consumerism. Others use the open comments forum for promoting alternate umbrella-like merchants of green goods beyond Amazon or making the simple suggestion that Amazon’s original customers, book readers, should do the planet a favor by patronizing a library instead.

Whatever the merits of this customer-created list, Amazon attempts to make the page more productive by pairing Green 3 with a side menu culling through its entire catalog for the greenest options in each department (Energy Star-rated electronics, for example). Now if only this browsing option were featured prominently on the site’s main page.

Copyright © 2008 | Distributed by Noofangle Media