Once upon a time, “sustainability” was a buzzword for hippies and activists, shouted through megaphones with increasing frustration at an SUV-driving, suburb-loving public. For a while, that uphill battle seemed more like a downward spiral.

But things have changed: Now, sustainability is everywhere! Laundry detergent comes in green bottles, leaf-patterns are plastered all over gas stations and everyone from oil companies to the U.S. military is jumping onto the sustainability bandwagon. The world is saved! Fire the biodegradable confetti!

Wait, hold your fire. Sure, it’s great that sustainability is the hot new trend… but who’s holding the megaphone nowadays? Therein lies the conundrum.

“In order for the sustainability movement to realize its goals, it has to become popular,” says Dr. Adrian Parr, “but as it becomes popular, it’s being appropriated by the interests of Big Business.”

Parr, the author of Hijacking Sustainability, comes to Calgary as part of the EVDS Design Matters lecture series, sponsored by the University of Calgary’s Faculty of Environmental Design. Her lecture, entitled Is Green the New Black?, is a follow up to her recent book, which points out the myriad ways in which the sustainability movement is being commodified.

At its grassroots heart, the sustainability movement is about equality. “Equality across races, ethnicities, generations and species,” she says. “We have to expand the way we think of the social field, which includes the ecosystems that enable us all to thrive together.”

What we’re seeing, however, has nothing to do with equality and everything to do with profit. In her book, Parr describes the phenomenon of “greenwashing” — that is, when companies put an exaggerated spin on their sustainability practices to disguise their true focus.

A prime example of greenwashing can be found in BP, an energy corporation that was recently awarded Greenpeace’s “Emerald Paintbrush” award for a campaign highlighting its minimal commitment to alternative energy sources, while downplaying its unwavering devotion to fossil fuels and accusations of human rights abuses in Columbia and Turkey.

Nor is greenwashing limited to the corporate sector. “The U.S. military has now come out with the idea of a ‘sustainable army,’ which is an oxymoron,” says Parr. “This is an institution founded upon the application of violence. It’s irrelevant if the Hummer you drive down the streets of Baghdad is a hybrid or not. If you’re going to kick the shit out of the local Iraqi citizen, you don’t ask the soldier about the value of those victims’ lives; you ask the victim. The army has taken on the facade of somehow advancing the principles of sustainability, but this is nonsense.”

Parr worries that even new sustainability technologies might be co-opted for corporate gain. “Who’s going to own the patents on this new technology?” she asks. “If all the patents for green technology are owned by the privileged, we’re essentially saying to countries like India, China or Sudan, ‘if you want to go green in your economic development, we’re going to make you pay for it.’”

While sustainability may now be a household word, it seems to have shed much of the ideology that first made it shine. “There’s a real disconnect between the goals of the grassroots sustainability movement and the ways in which, as it becomes more popular, Big Business begins to realize that, hey, this is something we can tap into to make money,” says Parr. “They use it as a strategy to mask some of the more abhorrent environmental and human rights abuses. This is a situation that is actually counter to the public good, because everything’s up for sale.”

All in all, this new spin on sustainability looks pretty bleak, but Parr remains hopeful. She points to the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, when the American delegate was dragging her heels on a commitment to the Bali Road Map. The delegate from Papua New Guinea, an island-nation with fewer than seven million inhabitants, made this reply to the U.S.: “We ask for your leadership. We seek your leadership. But, if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. Please, get out of the way.” Many analysts point to this simple and poignant response as the reason for an about-face by the American delegate and the adoption of the climate plan.

This, says Parr, demonstrates a key strength in grassroots movements. “They can capture the imaginary,” she says. “I think we’ve lost sight of the potential to reinvigorate the public common, but it’s there. It’s always there and it’s up to us to feel motivated enough to activate it. We all have skills. It’s just a matter of putting those skills to work in forging a vision and path forward into the future.”