designShrine

I'd say that alcohol definitely has some green aspects; I mean, it's often a principal factor in encouraging people to engage in enjoyable "back to nature" style activities like open-air urination and public nudity.

That said, would the label "eco-friendly" encourage consumers to buy a particular brand of booze? The folks at McCormick Distilling must think so, because they've come out with 360 Vodka, which claims to be the greenest intoxicant around.

According to their website, 360 Vodka is a planet-saver because of the eco-care taken in its production, including things like "a number of our printers and fax machines have been configured to save paper by printing double sided." and "installed CFL bulbs where possible" (emphasis mine), rather lacklustre efforts which don't strike me as evidence of hardcore environmental commitment.

360 Vodka also says that their labelling has saved 113 trees, 48,000 gallons of water, 10,000 pounds of greenhouse gases etc, a claim which is difficult to validate since it doesn't detail how many labels were involved in the "saving" of all those resources or what they're comparing their process to. The company is, however, offsetting all the power used in manufacture with credits purchased from a local renewable power provider.

Candidly, I'm a little biased against any consumable that tags itself as an "eco-luxury" product, which I think is about as obvious an oxymoron as ever sprang from the fertile brains of a trend-aware marketing department. However, if perceived greenness makes you feel a little less of that alcoholic guilt after barfing up your seventh martini, this might be just your thing.

via [luxist]