I remember, growing up in Detroit, when a green lawn, carefully manicured, was a sign of prosperity. I remember when green was the color of the healthiest of vegetables. I remember when green was about envy and/or jealousy (take your pick…). I remember when green reminded us of St. Patrick’s Day. I remember when green was just a color.

Today, however, “being green” is a mixture of practice, belief, knowledge, empirical data, economic theory, and survival. It is now a mandate, by implication, by law, and by professional status. It is about preservation of all that lives and lived, of all that is present on this planet and others, about legacy and right of passage.

I am not one of those whose understanding of the issues started in the 70’s. When I was a graduate student at Stanford in the late 60’s, there were complaints about the smog that hung over Oakland. I could barely see it. Now, I wish I could barely see it. I just did not get it. Disposables were miracles. Styrofoam was amazing. Plastic everything was what we talked about when we were “future-tripping” about what would someday be.

So, here we are now, 2008, looking at hospitals becoming “Green” in their practice within a system that is now hoping for sustainability in its material purchases, utilization, and disposal. However, the healthcare system itself does not look at human life the same way. Now, to defend the statement, I mean that patients are often objectified in a healthcare system that distributes numbers, statistics, generic codes and DRG’s, removing the humanity from that for which the system is responsible. Are we less part of the system than the materials that we are now claiming to want to sustain?

This is not an easy topic nor one for which there are easy answers. I think that the planet looks like it is a victim, even though it clearly fights back violently with storms, mudslides, catastrophic events that take human life and threaten our existence. We, as human beings, are supposed to fight back, too, by taking a stand for ourselves and fighting off predators. However, when we are ill, when disease has lessened our fighting capacity, our ability to demand ethical care, sustainable treatment, to trump economic and profit interests is often muted.

Now the automobile industry is being traumatically pushed into the world of “Green,” one that they so ardently and arrogantly thought they could avoid. Now, using a real cup at Starbuck’s instead of a paper cup will get you a ten-cent discount. Now, recycling newspapers is as common at the driveway as garbage can pick up. Now, re-using plastic yogurt containers is smart and green. Now, disposable anything makes us think twice about what “disposable” means.

The future is uncertain. However, what is certain is that what is called for in “being Green” is no less than a total accountability to all that is living and sustaining life. It is not ok to sustain the planet and tend to those who inhabit it. Rather, the highest state of Green integrity is about no less than everything.