What’s GreenWashing? From Wikipedia:
Greenwashing (green whitewash) is the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources.[1] It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing. The term green sheen has similarly been used to describe organizations that attempt to show that they are adopting practices beneficial to the environment.
Because most of us want to make the world a better and healthier place, big corporations have found that by adding green buzzwords to their marketing campaigns, product labels and PR, they can make sales, even if their products are far from green. Taking a bit of extra time to do some research will help you make better Green buying decisions.
Here are some examples of Greenwashing.
When a company claims their pesticide is “greener” we need to think about whether any pesticide is indeed green. Most are poison by nature. Choosing companion planting, planting trap plants, or using pest traps that don’t contain poisons is the better way to go.
If the label says the product is organic– is it? Not all products that claim to be organic deserve that label. “Legitimate third-party certifiers-EcoLogoCM, Chlorine Free Products Association (CFPA), Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), Green Guard, and Green Seal, for example-all maintain publicly available lists of certified products. Some even maintain fraud advisories for products that are falsely claiming certification.” according to TerraChoice.com. Check and see if the products you buy are indeed organic!
Beware of labels such as “environmentally friendly”, “chemical free”, “all natural” and similar. Find out what they’re really supposed to mean. An electronics item made of petrochemical plastics and heavy metals may indeed use less electricity and tout that in its advertising, but it’s still going to pollute when when it ends up in the local dump. Rotenone, a naturally derived pesticide and insecticide, is still a harmful poison.
There are other labelling tricks. Paper products are famous for this. What difference does it make that the item came from a “sustainable forest” if the processing of that sustainably grown wood into paper was polluting, and the paper products were shipped from the other side of the continent? Showing one good environmental practice on the label does not make a company green.
Taking some time to do your homework can help you make better green buying decisions and sustainable choices.
[...] Excerpt from: Are you buying Green Goods? Or GreenWashed Goods? « Green Goods Guide [...]