Blog Post

Foot Spa: Rhymes with "Chutzpah"

The editors and researchers for GreenSpec get more submissions from manufacturers wanting to get their products listed than we can keep up with. As GreenSpec is a "best of the best" directory reserved for the top 10% or so of the most environmentally preferable products available to contribute to a sane built environment, we end up rejecting most of them for not meeting our high standards. Sometimes we get pitches for fine products, but they just don't represent the top of the heap. (GreenSpec is intended to be a reference to the best stuff we know about, and a launching pad for additional research. Attempting to create and maintain a fully comprehensive compendium of everything that's even slightly green would not only be practically undoable, it would actually be much less useful in defining high benchmarks.) Often, we get pitched products that are just plain outside of the scope — GreenSpec doesn't include things that aren't directly about the action of creating (and to a small degree, maintaining) the built environment. And, just as surely as it crosses your desks, ever-increasingly brazen greenwashing is crossing ours. Sometimes — rarely — we'll get a submission that comes in at such an unexpected curve that we just have to step back and admire the spin. I'm not talking about evil marketing cabals — I think that most people do honestly believe the things they tell us (and themselves) — nor am I talking about the delusional and/or the apparently clueless. It's our job to sort all of that out. I'm talking about unexpected, funny, and earnest, but utterly futile and inappropriate gestures from so far out in left field that we never would have guessed anything like it was coming. Introducing the Footopia Patio Foot Spa, from Ashiyu. It's a 40-gallon, double-walled resin, bowl-shaped Jacuzzi for your feet, lined with river rock and serviced by a 1.5 kW heater and a 1.5 hp pump — with several available options, including multicolored lights. In the submission form presented to us, the environmental attributes were described by comparing its energy, water, and chemical use to that of a four-person hot tub. Which is sort of like comparing a little tangerine to a big grapefruit, but the intent and merit of the argument was noted. There aren't any third-party efficiency standards in place for these kinds of devices, so that's what tends to happen. This product is appropriate for the glossy pages of lifestyle magazines, but it ain't our thing. Nor did we consider it all that green. What rocked our world (in a really fun way) was a couple sentences near the end of their submission:
"Also, our product is cool, smart and sexy. From experience we can say no one will fault your eco-impiety for listing our spas among less fun products like pavers or siding."
Outstanding! We laughed and laughed.

Published November 8, 2008

(2008, November 8). Foot Spa: Rhymes with "Chutzpah". Retrieved from https://www.buildinggreen.com/blog/foot-spa-rhymes-chutzpah

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Comments

BuildingGreen Basic Member

November 15, 2008 - 7:29 am

I think what we have here is a mounting series of misunderstandings, so I'm glad to get your comment. It gives me the chance to clarify.

The "long-winded" introduction was to provide context. When I said "GreenSpec doesn't include things that aren't directly about the action of creating (and to a small degree, maintaining) the built environment," that was to explain why a foot spa is inappropriate for GreenSpec. If I was to rewrite that sentence now, I'd probably change it to something less colloquial, like "GreenSpec only includes products and materials normally specified in the building industry." Yawn.

When I described the foot spa pitch as "unexpected, funny, and earnest," that was praise. When I continued by saying that it was "utterly futile and inappropriate," I was speaking to the context I had previously spelled out - there was nothing negative about the product. Even if it was made from 100% post-consumer recycled polyester leisure suits and powered by pure magic, it's not appropriate for GreenSpec. The explanation of why the product can't be included in the directory was given before I ever talked about the product itself.

And it's absolutely true that this foot spa will use less water, electricity, and chemicals than a four-person hot tub - that's plain old common sense, and as I said, "the intent and merit of the argument was noted." But a foot spa isn't a hot tub, and in our work, we need to do lateral comparisons. Take residential refrigerator standards, for instance. The federal government has separate minimum energy standards for different compartment configurations, including side-by-side, top freezer, bottom freezer, single door refrigerator and freezer, single door refrigerator only, chest freezer, and upright freezer... not to mention automatic or manual defrost, and whether or not a unit has through-the-door ice service. Personally, I think that's taking things way too far, and that the whole mess is a result of letting an industry write its own standards, but it is what it is. And a foot spa isn't a hot tub, much like the 'fridge in your kitchen isn't a walk-in cooler at a restaurant.

So why did I write the post at all? Because the both the pitch and the product were likable and feisty. When the pitch said that pavers and siding aren't fun, we loved that. We research this stuff every day, and yeah - pavers and siding can be exceedingly boring. And fabrics, too. But that's what GreenSpec does. The primary audience includes architects, specifiers, engineers, and other building industry professionals looking for information to inform their work. We include products that fit the scope of the intent of GreenSpec - and for good or ill, we don't include products because they're fun and feisty, or even curative and restorative (though I'll bet a lot of these folks would benefit from a good foot soak).

But that doesn't really answer the question, does it? I wrote this post because I wanted to give the foot spa a wider audience, and we weren't going to be able to do that in GreenSpec. And since this isn't a product-endorsement blog, I used it as an opportunity to explain what GreenSpec is and isn't, and what the foot spa is and isn't. When I reread the post a couple times, I can see how it might have seemed like a specific attack, pan, or slam. It wasn't, though. This was the first time, and probably will be the only time, I've ever used the blog to give a product we couldn't include in GreenSpec some coverage.

Oh, and I really enjoyed your comment, as well - especially the post script - and hope that my response has cleared the air a bit.

BuildingGreen Basic Member

November 14, 2008 - 8:55 pm

Thanks for posting our product. Sorry you decided to pan us. They really are an eco-friendly alternative product. I'm guessing that is what you meant by saying its an "inappropriate" product. I know that dozens of our buyers are people who were considering a hot tub. So, bam, right there we saved 1000's of gallons of water and hundreds of kWhrs per spa. Or maybe you think that all home hydrotherapy is a waste. Is that what you meant by "utterly futile" (I have to guess because after your long-winded intro you just slam us with these put downs without any explanation.) But wake up, man, people need pain and stress relief. Its a necessity just like a comfy bed and a hot shower. We are putting it in a fun, low impact package that people really enjoy, even if its "not your thing". P.S. fabrics are boring too.

BuildingGreen Basic Member

November 15, 2008 - 10:48 am

Thanks, Mark, for your very even-handed response. The misunderstanding was all mine. Maybe I'm a little testy from having been excluded from green building fairs and guides because organizers were biased against something that looked frivolous to them. But there are some builders who have spec'ed out a house with all the latest resource-friendly materials and methods, and then watched the owners installs a big energy-hog hot tub that basically erases many of the gains that their work provided. The hot tub industry has managed to evade Energy-star ratings for many years. So our goal has been to provide an alternative. We have been included in new construction on occasion.

I actually regret the postscript. As a Materials Engineer, I wish I had the fortitude to do the hard work of developing siding, pavers and, yes, fabric that is more eco-friendly.