Greenwashing really complicates the lives of people who want to live eco-friendly lives.  How so?  According to Wikipedia, greenwashing "is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that a company's policies or products are environmentally friendly."  Often times, services that we use and items that we purchase are not as eco-friendly as they seem.

One way to determine which items and organizations are legitimately Earth-friendly is to look for eco-safe labels.  Let's go over a few you can trust:

 1.  The Energy Star Seal

You're probably familiar with the Energy Star seal.  It's often seen on electronics and appliances, and indicates that the product uses up to 75% less energy than its traditional counterpart.  According to RealSimple.com, the label was created by the Environmental Protection Agency.

2.  The FSC Logo 

Originated by the Forest Stewardship Council, this logo helps shoppers determine which wood and paper products were harvested under certified sustainable standards.  Look for it when shopping for things like furniture and flooring.

3.  The Fair Trade Tag 

The Fair Trade Certified tag confirms which foods (like coffee, chocolate, sugar and fruit) are grown using environmentally friendly practices.  Perhaps more importantly, it also ensures that farmers are receiving a fair price for their products.

Be sure to check out the full list of RealSimple.com's 8 Legitimate Earth-Friendly Seals. Purchasing products with one of these logos is a great way to avoid falling victim to greenwashing scams!

Recently, Sprint unveiled what it's calling the world's first environmentally-friendly smartphone. The brand new Samsung Replenish is meant to inspire eco-conscious living. The phone's specs make it particularly appealing to anyone who would like to take the next step toward living an eco-friendly lifestyle.

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "34% of the Samsung Replenish is made out of recycled material." However, the eco-phone, which runs on the Android 2.2 operating system, does not lack any of the features smartphone customers are used to. It touts a 2.8" touch screen, a keyboard, and a Micro USB charging port on its bottom. Its designers made sure to incorporate what is by now a standard 2-Mega Pixel camera and a built-in slot for micro SD memory. For the super environmentally-conscious individual, there is even an option for a solar paneled back cover. 

With all of these great features, the Samsung Replenish is sure to appeal to energy conscious and environmentally aware individuals. After all, who wouldn't "go green" with his or her phone, given the choice? But all of the excitement surrounding the new phone begs the question:  How green is it?

An article featured on the Indianapolis Star's Web site explores the legitimacy behind electronics' "eco-friendly" claims. The article's author, Edward C. Baig, calls the Samsung Replenish and similar products "obvious eco-friendly bonfires."  Because the manufacturers of these products promote the fact that they are made from recycled materials, their environmentally conscious attributes are clear.

But there are other, less obvious eco-friendly products, too. Baig cites Apple as an example. "Apple has been selling green for a while," said Baig. "The company's website provides exhaustive details on each of its products, down to power consumption, materials used and greenhouse gas emissions," he continued.

The difference is that Apple isn't promoting all of its products as environmentally friendly. It allows users to decide for themselves how eco-responsible each product is. With the growing popularity of green-washing, this may be an appropriate route.

Nevertheless, the Samsung Replenish does seem to be an honestly green product. Independent organizations, such as Underwriters Laboratories, rate companies and products based on policies regarding chemicals, recycling, and climate change. According to Baig, "Just this past week, the Samsung Replenish became the first phone to receive a UL Environment certification." Therefore, for anyone looking to go green with a new phone, the Samsung Replenish seems to be a great option!

As with most fads and trends, scientists and consumers have begun to poke holes in the products available from the "biodegradable" product industry. The trend toward going green is something that we all hope is legitimate and will last a long time (forever, really). But a recent slew of articles expose that not all companies and organizations are being completely up front about their environmentally-friendly practices.

According to Tiffany Hsu in her LA Times article, "...[E]nvironmentalists and some consumers are crying foul, saying that many companies are making the products out to be greener than they really are, a practice they call greenwashing." In her article, Hsu reports that ad agency Ogilvy & Mather has been pushing to reveal the truth behind these greenwashing corporations. The concern is that if these organizations continue to exaggerate the eco-friendly characteristics of their products, consumers will soon become cynics, and will stop buying green products all together.

Additionally, research shows that many products that are marketed as eco-friendly may actually be harmful to the environment. Mother Nature Network's Web site reports that after testing, Morton Barlaz, the head of North Carolina State University's Dept. of Civil, Construction and Environmental Engineering, found that some "biodegradable" products actually decompose at such a rapid pace that excess methane is released. The article, contributed by LiveScience, goes on to say, "Methane stays in the atmosphere for a much shorter period of time than other another greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide, but in the meantime it traps heat more effectively."

The solutions to these problems? First, there need to be stricter guidelines on how we deem products as "eco-friendly." And to maximize the environmental-friendliness of biodegradable products that end up in landfills, Barlaz suggests that we "both expand methane collection and landfills and design these products to degrade more slowly -- in contrast to FTC guidance." Hopefully these changes can be made; it's necessary that we begin to take steps toward a cleaner environment today!

It seems that some eco-friendly products are not all that they are cracked up to be. According to a study of over 5,000 products by Ottawa-based marketing firm TerraChoice, over 95% of companies who claim to produce "green" products make at least one misleading claim about the eco-friendly nature of their items. The statistics for children's products were even worse, including 100% of toys guilty of "greenwashing". Some of the most common breaches of trust include making the false statement that products are BPA-free or phthalate-free, and even having phony certification symbols imprinted on their label.

Now while there are plenty of companies that are exploiting the demand for eco-friendly products, it should be noted that there are still some great companies who genuinely want to do good for the planet. Keep in mind that "going green" is a consumer-driven movement. If there was not a growing demand for these environmental considerations, companies would not have an interest in manufacturing eco-friendly products in the first place. From this, it can be assumed that it is the responsibility of the consumer to keep companies honest in their claims.

You can play a huge part in the prevention of "greenwashing" by doing a little bit of research on the company before you purchase their products. Some companies that take advantage of the "going green" trend prey on consumers who see their products on the shelves and make an impulse buy based solely on the fact that the box says "eco-friendly". Other brands will simply use the color green in their ads with no mention of eco-friendly practices whatsoever. This form of subliminal advertising is meant to get the consumer to assume that a product is eco-friendly when that is not the case.

If you notice anything on the packaging of a product that seems misleading or inconsistent, tell your friends. Green products are often recommended through word-of-mouth, so "greenwashed" products can be flagged through conversation as well. In light of the facts on global warming, corporate irresponsibility, and plundering of natural resources, we as a society were able to put companies under a microscope. The "going green" movement was born from this realization that the health of the planet must be protected and restored. Let's magnify the intensity of that microscope once again, and hold companies to a much higher standard when it comes to advertising their products as "green".

Greenwashing is when businesses label their products as green or eco-friendly when the products don’t actually meet these standards. It is about people being fooled into buying products that are not really good for them, or for the environment.

Consumers today should be savvy enough to navigate through advertising hype. How many people really think that sugary cereals are nutritious? Yet TV commercials and cereal box labels still want us to believe that sugary frosted cereals are “part of a nutritious breakfast.”

There are of course many more examples of advertising hype as we all well know, so shouldn’t the same hold true for eco-friendly products? After all, today’s consumer is demanding more and more of these products and so of course corporations want to package their goods to meet market demands.

Of course regulations and certification labels are helpful in identifying which products meet our green demands, just as any other product should follow the truth in advertising rules.

Currently the Federal Trade Commission Act requires that all advertising:
•    Be truthful and non-deceptive
•    Must have evidence to back up their claims
•    Cannot be unfair

Businesses can be forced to pay stiff fines and face penalties for not adhering to these guidelines.
Then there are cases where labels are technically truthful about their certification but the product may not actually meet the standards we may personally think they should.

A good example is the organic label. Many foods are labeled as organic but they are only organic in the strictest sense of the word. Many farms follow organic practices with their soil standards and so are able to be USDA certified as organic, yet they really follow factory farm practices in everything but their soil (the Cornucopia Institute is but one organization that follows organic farming claims and has great material about which organic products do not utilize humane farming conditions and are actually large factory farms).

These are cases where a certified label doesn’t really mean as much as we might hope it would.

In addition, greenwashing may not be a completely bad thing, but rather a symptom of the growing demand of consumers for products that are safe for our health and the health of the planet.

Many companies that have heretofore created toxic chemicals and products are now producing and advertising their green products. There are so many “green” products on the shelves of mainstream grocery stores, we don’t have to make that extra trip to the co-op or Whole Foods to buy laundry soap. It should only get better from here!

As with any product, we should be smart and savvy and we should read our labels, and we should also know what the many green advertising terms on labels mean.

Via: http://www.ecomii.com/blogs/business/2009/04/27/the-hype-about-greenwashing/

ecomii.com

According to one set of high standards, only 2% of products claiming in some way to be "green" actually measure up. The rest -- a whopping 98% -- are making false claims that mislead consumers into thinking a product is sustainable.

Things are so bad out there that the report's author, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, had to add a seventh sin of greenwashing to the original six it developed for its first report in 2007.

Since then, the market for green products has exploded; the rate of green advertising has tripled from 2006 to 2009, according to one TerraChoice survey. Of 2,219 products surveyed in North America in 2009, 98% committed at least one "sin" that could mislead consumers. The most sinful categories of products: kids toys and baby products, cosmetics and cleaning products.

TerraChoice defines greenwashing as "the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service." For consumers trying to make responsible decisions in the marketplace, it's a huge problem.

TerraChoice recognizes several labels -- including its own EcoLogo -- for being legitimate arbiters of a product's green credentials. The respectable labels are:

11 Eco Labels You Can Trust

• Forest Stewardship Council
• Green Guard
• Green Seal
• Sustainable Forestry Initiative
• EPA's Design for Environment
• Ecocert
• Energy Star
• EPEAT
• USDA Organic
• EPA's WaterSense
• EcoLogo

For more thoughts, from a different and venerable institution, consult Consumer's Union, which publishes the great Greener Choices Eco-Label Center.

Beware terms like "eco-safe," "eco-secure," "eco-preferred," and "natural" which are meaningless.

The Seven Sins of Greenwashing

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off: If a product claims to be green in one sense, but ignores other significant impacts, the marketers sin.

According to TerraChoice: "Paper, for example, is not necessarily environmentally-preferable just because it comes from a sustainably-harvested forest. Other important environmental issues in the paper-making process, including energy, greenhouse gas emissions, and water and air pollution, may be equally or more significant."

2. Sin of No Proof: If you can't prove it with reputable third-party verification, you can't claim it, according to TerraChoice: "Common examples are facial or toilet tissue products that claim various percentages of post-consumer recycled content without providing any evidence."

3. Sin of Vagueness: Terms such as "all-natural," "environmentally friendly" and other vague or unregulated descriptors can mislead consumers. TerraChoice points out: "Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. 'All natural' isn't necessarily 'green'."

4. The (new) Sin of Worshiping False Labels: Often, a product has an official-looking seal, but the seal is meaningless because it is dreamed up by the product marketers themselves, without any application of third-party standards.

5. Sin of Irrelevance: If a claim is true, but doesn't distinguish the product in any meaningful way, marketers have sinned.

According to TerraChoice: "'CFC-free' is a common example, since it is a frequent claim despite the fact that CFCs (that's chlorofluorocarbons -- the chemical that depletes the ozone layer) are banned by law."

6. Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils: Even if a green marketing claim is true -- the cigarette is organic, or the SUV has a hybrid engine -- it fails this TerraChoice test if the claim fails to recognize the overall harm caused by the product.

The SUV may get better mileage than others in its class, but still achieve dismal fuel economy when compared to other vehicles; the cigarette, however organic, still causes lung cancer.

7. Sin of Fibbing: Simple. It's a lie. Some companies will go as far as claiming to be certified organic or Energy Star-certified, but cannot back up the certification.

via:http://green.yahoo.com/blog/daily_green_news/25/study-98-of-products-green-claims-are-misleading.html

Everyone’s heard the expression “whitewashing” — it’s defined as “a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts, especially in a political context.”

“Greenwashing” is the same premise, but in an environmental context.

It’s greenwashing when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be “green” through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush.

A classic example might be an energy company that runs an advertising campaign touting a “green” technology they’re working on — but that “green” technology represents only a sliver of the company’s otherwise not-so-green business, or may be marketed on the heels of an oil spill or plant explosion.

Or a hotel chain that calls itself “green” because it allows guests to choose to sleep on the same sheets and reuse towels, but actually does very little to save water and energy where it counts — on its grounds, with its appliances and lighting, in its kitchens and with its vehicle fleet.

Or a bank that’s suddenly “green” because you can conduct your finances online, or a grocery store that’s “green” because they’ll take back your plastic grocery bags, or …

You get the picture.

via: Greenwashing Index