Sins of Greenwashing

Previously, Peggy wrote a post about greenwashing that offered a nice greenwashing index. The greenwashing index can help you to rate advertising and decide if they’re greenwashing or eco-legit.

Another good resource for people looking to avoid greenwashing, or looking to understand it better, is TerraChoice, a science based environmental marketing agency. Their goal is to help truly sustainable companies grow, and help consumers look out for greenwashing.

One of their best consumer resources is their Six Sins of Greenwashing.

The six sins:

1. Sin of the hidden trade-off: Such as sustainable wood that must be transported hundreds of miles – that’s a big eco trade-off.
2. Sin of no proof: People promoting green with no evidence to back it up.
3. Sin of vagueness: Using terms without explaining them. There are few certifications in place for green products, so any old company can say, “We’re eco-friendly” but with no definition to back it up well… they could be anything.
4. Sin of irrelevance: This is when a company makes “So what claims” like saying they don’t put a harmful chemical in their cosmetics that hasn’t been used in any cosmetics for years.
5. Sin of fibbing: Claiming false green certification.
6. Sin of the lesser of two evils: This, in my opinion is the biggest sin of greenwashing companies, because this is when a company actually tries to make you feel better about doing less than you could. This also leads to people mis-thinking that they’re doing their best so they may not try to do better. Lame (see example below).

Read all the definitions and their other examples.

This article is somewhat like the greenwashing index, in that it helps you identify greenwashing, but they go about it a little differently in relation to the examples each sin offers. I like the six sins piece because it really breaks it down – into what good companies don’t do and what greenwashers do try to get away with.

For example, the whole Palmolive “eco” friendly dish washing liquid issue is a good example of the sin of the lesser of two evils. They’re trying really hard to make consumers feel green but their product is actually quite questionable when it comes to green – in fact it’s not green, just the lesser evil of regular dish washing detergent. In actuality there are better, greener choices available.

There’s also a pretty cool TerraChoice blog that you’ll want to check out.