The guide or directory projects are perhaps the most interesting initiatives in appreciating the subtleties of the both the creation and the expression of alternative value in the building industry. It is a dialectic of the ideal and the actual. The guide publishers must often make very subjective value judgements about what is the best strategy to advance green building practice. For example, regional directories (like the one the author was involved with in 1994-96) must make decisions as to whether listing a green product made far away, but not produced locally, encourages or discourages the eventual local production of the product; or whether the endorsement of a less green local product is better than support for a more ecological product made elsewhere. The directory projects are also faced with very practical concerns about liability and financing. Liability concerns are particularly great for guides that give products a specific rating. Large corporations with substantial legal resources will not hesitate to sue for libel or misrepresentation of their products. Even more common best case directories that only list products have been subject to intimidation by corporations that see the exclusion of their products as misrepresentation or unfair trade practice. Even governments are subject to corporate intimidation. In New York state, for example, the Resilient Flooring Association, a front for the vinyl industry, attempted to challenge the states progressive new green building standards, which do not include polyvinyl chloride (PVC) as a recommended green material. The Associations suit was withdrawn before a state court was likely to rule against it (Greenbiz.com, 2003), but served notice that any possible transition away from PVC would be made as costly as possible by vinyl industry resistance. (This will be discussed further in the next chapter).