Change the World - Greenwashing

With this episode in my series inspired by World Changing, my random stop in the book finds a section entitled Greenwashing. By now, we’re all pretty familiar with the word, so I doubt I have to provide a definition. It came into existence more than ten years ago when environmentalists started questioning some of the marketing claims being made by corporations. I would love to say that there’s less of it taking place today as more people are aware of the practice, but I don’t think that’s true. There are many authentically green companies, yet there are far more who see increased interest in sustainability as new market potential. Therefore we have to be as diligent as ever to watch for greenwashing and call it out when we see it.

A guide that I often use to judge whether something meets the definition of greenwashing is a document produced by the UK marketing Futerra Sustainability Communications. They published a guide to what they considered the best signs of greenwashing in The Greenwash Guide. They identify the following ten signs:

1. Fluffy Language - Words or terms with no clear meaning, such as eco-friendly. Fluffy language is really anything that defied definition but sounds like it supports a green agenda. In my opinion, the term natural is equally fluffy. Although used widely in grocery stores, being natural is not necessarily synonymous with healthy. There are many harmful chemicals that are also natural. Formaldehyde is a naturally occurring preservative, but that doesn’t make it safe in long term exposure.
   
2. Green Products vs. Dirty Company - Such as efficient light bulbs made in a factory which pollutes rivers. Unfortunately this could be applied to just about everything made. But one good example to look out for is sourcing for products made of bamboo. Many consider bamboo a rapidly renewable resource therefore a green material. But all of it is grown in southeast Asia and not all of it under the best of conditions. It happens less today than in the past, but some plantations used child labor for harvesting. The best bamboo material manufacturers should be able to provide you with information about their sourcing if asked. If they cannot, don’t use them.
   
3. Suggestive Pictures - Green images that indicate an unjustified green impact, such as flowers blooming from exhaust pipes. It’s hard for marketers to resist an attractive image of a landscape. Some of the worst are ones that use images of frogs as a symbol of environmental stewardship. As if their work is saving frogs in South American rain forests. Personally, I’ve gotten used to this practice and ignore the imagery used.
   
4. Irrelevant Claims - Emphasizing one tiny green attribute when everything else is un-green. Many vinyl and plastic manufacturers often claim that their product is recyclable. And that may be true, but only relevant if there are functional recycling programs available. Of the seven types of plastics, only type 1 (PET) and type 2 (HDPE) are recycled in any quantity. Roughly twenty-four percent of type 1 and ten percent of type 2 returns to create new product. Only one percent of each of the other five polymer types is every recycled. All types can be recycled, but are not because there’s no viable market. In most cases, virgin polymer is far less expensive to produce.  So to make a bid deal about the recyclability of a generally harmful and toxic product is an irrelevant claim.
   
5. Best in Class - Declaring you are slightly greener than the rest, even if the rest are pretty terrible.  Companies love to make comparisons with their competitors. I find this tactic often used by makers of vinyl products such as vinyl composition flooring. At it’s core, vinyl is an environmentally unfavorable material. For vinyl producers to jockey with one another for the least harmful position is not the same as making a green product.
   
6. Just Not Credible - Eco-friendly cigarettes anyone? Greening a dangerous product doesn’t make it safe.
   
7. Gobbledygook - Jargon and information that only a scientist could check or understand. Within the arena of building construction materials, I still see this used regularly. If a product’s sustainability claims can only be explained in complicated terms, it’s probably a smoke screen.
   
8. Imaginary Friends - A label that looks like third party endorsement, except it’s made up. Or worse, the certification organization is nothing more than a trade organization managed program meant to greenwash the harmful practices of its membership. In a previous post I mentioned how this is the case with the American Forest and Paper Association and their industry funded Sustainable Forestry Initiative.
9. No Proof - It could be right, but where’s the evidence? Manufacturers don’t need to include a doctoral thesis to prove their claims, but if the consumer has to do considerable research to find evidence of a claim, then it’s probably not true.
10. Out-right Lying - Totally fabricated claims or data. You would be surprised how many times I have caught manufacturers doing this. I recently called out a wood product maker for suggesting that their practices are just as good as being FSC certified. Either you are certified or you are not. There’s no middle ground.

These are a pretty good list. But before relying on these, the amount of transparency offered to the consumer is usually the first best indicator of the manufacturer’s real intentions. I’ve started going one step farther than asking questions, I’m not visiting production facilities. If a so-called green building material maker won’t let me see how they produce the product, I won’t include them in my materials library.
What kinds of greenwashing stories or criteria do you have?

Written by Kevin O’Donnell, fundamentalist, at thread collaborative. To read more on similar subjects, please visit his web site here. Also, check out his previous posts in this series - Introduction, Buy Better Clothes, What’s the Big Deal With Portland, Green Facades, Cotton: The Fabric of Our Lives, Tool Sharing, Fog Catching, Energy Conservation, Cradle to Cradle Protocol, DIY Culture, Buy Local, Certifications, and Polar Doomsay Vault.