Green Wash: "Sustaining" the Status Quo

In the Year of Our Earth, the Common Era, 2008.
Summertime, San Francisco.
Another cold summer day in The City.
The "green washing" of my workplace is ON!
Several of us have been assigned to a new "task force" to come up with ways to comply with mandates from our "Central Office" for greening our campus (I am going to be using euphemisms to refer to various university entities in order to keep my ass outta trouble).
Although environmental sustainability has been a hot-button topic for several years, the organization I work for is just now beginning to take steps to implement operations practices that will reduce its carbon footprint and make other gestures towards sustainability.
Up until now, we have been just talking about sustainability, very little has actually been done to change our facilities operations. A WHOLE LOT of talk has taken the place of action for years around here. Some people have even been able to start whole new carriers based on all this talk. In fact, as soon as the student association had succeeded in creating and operating a viable recycling center, the Administration decided that students could not be trusted with such a weighty responsibility and its operation was handed over to the Plant Operations Department. A couple of years later the Plant Operations Manager became the Associate Vice President of Facilities Services Enterprises. Cool new title, cool new department, cool new salary.
I, myself was even an early recruit. Told this was the oportunity of a lifetime, I was taken out of the motor pool and made project coordinator for a couple of sustainable building projects involving the U.S. Green Building Council's LEED for Existing Buildings Rating System.
After nearly a year of solo info gathering and sporadic "support" from my manager - "What can we show them RIGHT NOW to get us certified as a "green" facility?" - it became clear to me that becoming LEED certified was going to take a concerted effort, involving a wide range of people from almost every department in the university. As soon as I began communicating this reality to management, their interest began to waver. Shortly thereafter, I was taken off of the project. My role was handed over to our Associate V.P.'s personal assistant (she resigned 3 months later) and all other aspects of our sustainability efforts were assigned to student assistant staff.
So much for the "opportunity of a lifetime." The "green washing" had begun.
However, I realized that there was, nonetheless, potential for personal growth in the area of sustainability. I applied to and was accepted into a graduate program to earn an MBA in Sustainable Enterprises.
There are two such programs offered in the SF Bay Area. One is self-admitted as having an emphasis on "BUSINESS." This first school decided I was not " a good fit" for their program - "People 'your age' are usually already in upper-level management by the time they come to OUR program." Oh well, another clique this late-bloomer flunks out of! Obviously, my face, my stats, my "former business experience" would not enhance the appearance of their web-page.
The second school is decribed by the first as being more geared towards producing sustainability "activists" - pronounced with a just the hint of an amused, distainful sneer. These guys had no problem with my age, present employment situation, or my 3.8 GPA during my undergrad years - earned, BTW, while I was working full-time, raising a child and supporting and caring for a disabled spouse. O.K., I guess I'll risk being labelled an "activist." I will start this program in the fall of 2008. Wish me luck. My wife is back on her feet, my son is grown, I still work full-time ... but hey, this'll be a breeze, right? Right?
Meantime, I am back working in the Motor Pool and coordinating "the greening of the campus Fleet" - pricing recapped tires and test-driving a stream of snakeoil mercants' electric minivans (some of 'em still have the clutch pedal installed from their "re-engineering" as "green-mobiles").