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Oct 29, 2008 10:00 pm US/Central
Companies May 'Greenwash' You Into Buying Products
DALLAS (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ―
Going green is a big business, but as a consumer, do you really know the product you're buying is as green as it claims to be? Some companies may be trying to 'greenwash' you.
Dora Hornick and her son, Samuel recently shopped for paint at Green Living, a specialty store in Dallas. Hornick says she's trying to keep her home as toxic free as possible, but says shopping green can be confusing and frustrating. "Because there doesn't seem to be a standard you could go to any store and know what you're getting."
There are many definitions of what is green, according to Kate Macauly who runs the Green Living store. Macauly carefully researches every item she sells, including toys, clothes and cleaning supplies to make sure the green claims are true in every sense.
"What does recycled mean? Does it mean the product was made from recycled content or does that mean the product can be easily recycled in your community recycling program," Macauly asks.
The truth is a lot of green claims made by companies don't tell the whole story. And you could be paying a premium for a product that doesn't live up to its hype.
Macauly points to a growing trend involving reusable water bottles. "I saw a lot of reusable water bottles out there that were not up to standard. They were not disclosing what the metals were made of, there was no labeling on the type of plastic that's used on the mouthpiece or caps," according to Macauly.
She says you have to look at labels, ingredients, even the packaging. If a product's ingredients claim to be green, but then the product is over packaged, it could be a case of greenwashing.
"There are many ways to greenwash, unfortunately, and it can happen accidentally or maliciously" says Valerie Davis, CEO of Enviro-Media, an Austin based marketing group that has its own greenwashing index. "The greenwashing index is the world's only online forum that allows consumers to post real green ads and then rate them."
On the website, consumers use criteria provided by Enviro-Media to evaluate a company's claim. Davis explains, "First, it asks you to look at the words, are they misleading? Next - look at the ad's images. Are the images misleading? And then look at the environmental claims themselves. Are they vague, are they exaggerated?"
Davis says the site educates consumers before they shop, and raises the bar for truth in advertising.
Scot Case and his organization, Terrachoice Environmental Marketing, evaluated nearly 2,000 products and came up with the six sins of greenwashing. They include the sin of the hidden trade off, the sin of no proof, the sin of vagueness, the sin of irrelevance, the sin of fibbing and the sin of the lesser of two evils.
Case says the maker of a cosmetic product committed the sin of irrelevance when it boasted about being free of dangerous CFC's. Case says "CFC's were banned in 1978. It's illegal to have CFC's in any product. So here we have a company saying, give me some green love 'cause I don't have CFC's and all they're really saying is, we're obeying the law."
The Federal Trade Commission has guidelines for the use of green marketing claims -but they're not law.
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