Green marketing, the new sweetheart of American business, is on the rise, as people seek to leverage their spending as part of an environmental commitment. “Today, consumers are inundated with products that make green claims,” observes Scott McDougall, president of TerraChoice Environmental Marketing. The problem is that, “Some are accurate, certified and verifiable, while others are just plain fibbing, to sell products,” he says.

McDougall bases these conclusions upon his firm’s survey of 1,018 products at six leading North American big box stores, where product labels made 1,753 environmental claims. But, only one product lived up to its claims, the other 99 percent were guilty of at least one of what McDougall dubs the Six Sins of Greenwashing™.  With a single exception, all the labels proved either false or misleading.

“Businesses are struggling with challenges to communicate meaningfully and honestly in this arena,” empathizes McDougall.

We’re at the point where the powerful convergence of consumers and commerce can use market competition and free enterprise to pull our economy toward social responsibility and sustainability. Educating consumers about patterns of environmental whitewashing will help people to buy green with confidence.

To start, “Consumers are owed evidence about the life-cycle of every product,” says McDougall. At a minimum, this must be available through company website information or third-party certification. He notes that, “Dishonesty occurs most commonly when a company claims that a product is certified by an outside organization, and it simply isn’t.”

TerraChoice research identified six common environmental shortcomings:

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-off

Characterized 57 percent of all environmental claims studied. Suggests that a product is “green,” based on a single environmental attribute, or just a few, while ignoring larger issues. A prevalent example is “energy-efficient” electronics that contain hazardous materials. Comments McDougall, “It’s like a magician drawing your attention to his left hand, so that you can’t see what his right hand is doing.”

2. Sin of No Proof

Occurred in 26 percent of environmental claims in the study. A typical example is personal care products labeled, “Certified organic,” but which carry no verifiable certification.

3. Sin of Vagueness

True of 11 percent of environmental claims monitored. Claims are poorly defined or too broad to be meaningful and will likely be misunderstood by consumers. Products committing this sin might be advertised as “100 percent natural.” But consider the fact that arsenic and formaldehyde are naturally-occurring substances; we wouldn’t want those in our shampoo.

4. Sin of Irrelevance

A green claim may be truthful, but also be unimportant and unhelpful in choosing among products. Some aerosols, for instance, boast that they are “CFC-free,” even though chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were banned here more than 20 years ago.

5. Sin of Fibbing

Found to be true of relatively few products, which outright misuse or misrepresent certification by an independent authority. Their product “certification” doesn’t exist.

6. Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils

A sleight-of-hand identified with relatively few products. These “green” claims may be true within the product category, but risk distracting us from the bigger issues of the category as a whole. Examples include “organic” cigarettes and “environmentally friendly” pesticides. “No one should be misled into choosing the lesser of two evils,” concludes McDougall.

As always, the best advice is, “Let the buyer beware.” Be aware enough to differentiate between the good guys wearing green hats and those stretching the eco-truth. The best bet is to rely upon trustworthy eco-labels, such as EcoLogo and Green Seal, which certify multiple product attributes. Knowledgeable purchasing power will keep impostors from stealing market share from the truly green innovators.

Source: TerraChoice.com

Two Green Stamps We Can Trust

EcoLogo

EcoLogoCM is North America’s oldest and most widely known environmental leadership standard, evaluating products according to more than 120 environmental standards. It currently certifies nearly 7,000 products based on all environmental attributes. For more on the only program in North America accredited by the Global Eco-Labelling Network, visit www.EcoLogo.org.

Green Seal

Green Seal standards provide market leadership criteria for development of many categories of products and services. www.GreenSeal.org lists all Green Seal-certified goods, with links to the manufacturers and providers.