Six Sins of Greenwashing
“GreenWashing”, as defined by the Wikipedia, is a term that is used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.
A company who is in the business of helping green companies, grow greener (?), came up with a list of top 6 “Greenwashing sins”. The “sins” identified by TerraChoice include:
- Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off — claims that suggest a product is “green” based on a single environmental attribute (the recycled content of paper, for example) or an unreasonably narrow set of attributes without attention to other important, or perhaps more important, environmental issues (such as the energy, climate, water, or forestry impacts of paper). Such claims aren’t usually false, but paint a misleading picture of the product than a more complete environmental analysis would support. This was the most frequently committed “sin,” made by 57% of all environmental claims examined.
- Sin of No Proof (26% of all claims examined) — any claim that couldn’t be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information, or by a reliable third-party certification. TerraChoice determined there to be “no proof” if supporting evidence was not accessible at either the point of purchase or at the product website.
- Sin of Vagueness (11% of all claims examined) — any claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the intended consumer, such as “chemical free” or “all natural.”
- Sin of Irrelevance (4% of all claims examined) — claims that may be truthful but are unimportant and unhelpful for consumers, such as CFC-free products, since ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons have been outlawed since the late 1980s.
- Sin of Lesser of Two Evils (1% of all claims examined) — environmental claims that may be true, but that risk distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole, such as organic tobacco or green insecticides.
- Sin of Fibbing (less than 1% of all claims examined) — claims that are simply false, typically by misusing or misrepresenting certification by an independent authority, when no such certification had been made
See Wikipedia for more information on “GreenWashing” here: http://www.terrachoice.com/Home/Six%20Sins%20of%20Greenwashing
Also see Terrachoice website regarding the 6 “sins” here: http://www.terrachoice.com/Home/Six%20Sins%20of%20Greenwashing
Tags: Greenwashing