Wednesday 18 July 2007

Environmentalism Hits Consumer Paradise



Orlando Premium Outlets
8200 Vineland Avenue,
Orlando, FL USA 32821

http://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlets/outlet.asp?id=17


Where is it?

This really depends on where you start from so I’ll let you find your way to the food hall. From the northern entrance to the hall, turn directly right and follow along. There are a multitude of different toilets to your left.


What’s it like?

If there is one thing I don’t like it is tokenism. I’m as green as the next person, but I don’t believe companies when they do something that the customer might find slightly unpalatable and then blame it on ‘saving the environment’. This is exactly what got me here. Some fairly boring, but nevertheless well thought out toilets with nappy changing facilities and loads of space, were spoilt by the sign on the dryer.

What a poor excuse! If you want to save on cleaning by having a dryer tell us that. Or at least appeal to peoples’ in built snobbery (this is the Premium Outlets after all) and tell them you’ve installed dryers so they don’t have to touch something that the scumbag before them might have left their germs on. Don’t tell people that electricity-guzzling dryers are going to do less harm to the environment than a little two ply paper.

And don’t they see the contradiction. This puny ineffective measure is dwarfed by the fact that we are in the US – Environmental Pariah of the World – and in consumer heaven – one of the better outlet malls in Florida. Just reducing the air conditioning 5 degrees for the site would save enough power to run a small community in Scotland for a year. If they are serious about being green, this is the last place to start.

After that rant, I have to say they were ok. They were averagely clean, perfectly normal and utilitarian. In the end the person who designed these toilets said, “well they are only the toilets after all”. Maybe I’d like to see just a little bit more from this premium site.


Marks out of 10:

7


Comments to the management:

If you want to go green, do it properly.

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