Talk to anybody working in the business of green, and chances are, you will have heard the word more than once. Greenwashing. It’s bad, and according to a recent study by the environmental consulting firm TerraChoice, almost everyone in corporate America is guilty of it. Getting them to admit is another story. I especially loved the senior moment of the GM guy in this one interview:
TerraChoice‘s made it easy for you. It has categorized greenwashing into six major sin categories:
Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off:
‘By suggesting a product is “green” based on a single environmental attribute or an unreasonably narrow set of attributes without attention to other important, or perhaps more important, environmental issues.’
Sin of No Proof:
‘Any environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information, or by a reliable third-party certification.’
Sin of Vagueness:
‘Every claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the intended consumer.’
Sin of Irrelevance:
‘Making an environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant and unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products.’
Sin of Lesser of Two Evils:
‘“Green” claims that may be true within the product category, but that risk distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole.’
Sin of Fibbing:
‘Making environmental claims that are simply false.’
And guess what? Now you get a chance to become a part of the greenwashing police and to rate ads on a new web site, Greenwashing Index.
La Marguerite 
“got to see it to believe it”
Did I really hear that?
FYI, I think Montaigne must have had greenwashing in mind when he wrote (over four hundred years ago):
“They who in my time have attempted to correct the manners of the world by new opinions, reform seeming vices; but the essential vices they leave as they were, if indeed they do not augment them, and augmentation is therein to be feared; we defer all other well doing upon the account of these external reformations, of less cost and greater show, and thereby expiate good cheap, for the other natural, consubstantial, and intestine vices.”
(from Michel de Montaigne’s Selected Essays, “Of Repentance”, translated by Charles Cotton and published by Borders Classics)
Alas, Montaigne’s statement wouldn’t make for good ad copy. (Or, on the other hand, maybe in a simplified form, and in the right circumstances, it would?)
Emerson had this to say:
“Virtues, are, in the popular estimate, rather the exception than the rule. There is the man *and* his virtues. Men do what is called a good action, as some piece of courage or charity, much as they would pay a fine in expiation of daily non-appearance on parade. Their works are done as an apology or extenuation of their living in the world, – as invalids and the insane pay a high board. Their virtues are penances.”
(from Emerson’s classic essay, “Self-Reliance”, with my apologies for some of the terminologies and examples used in those days)
There again, I don’t think those two would have been popular with many advertisers.
Thanks for those quotes, and for ‘elevating’ this greenwashing discussion . . . Montaigne is one of my favorite writers of all times.
I think that for a product or a person in daily life, being “green” is like being “sincere”, or “honest” or “loyal” or “reliable”, and so on – if you have to tell people that’s what you are, then probably you’re not.
Online nobody knows me or sees what I do, so I have to name myself as I wish to be, “green”. But with people I know, I never call myself “green” – it shows, or doesn’t show, by my actions, just as would being honest, sincere, and so on.
Have you ever been to a job interview where the potential employer said, “we care about our workers” or the potential employee said, “I’m very reliable and hard-working”? Ever been on a blind date and met someone who told you, “I’m very faithful”? Ever been to a mechanic who said, “I’ll give you an honest quote”? Did you feel a slight discomfort from their words?
If you are it, it’ll show, and you won’t have to tell us. The moment the word “green” appears on a product, I immediately assume it’s not. For example, there’s been a rise in the use of greywater on gardens here in drought-ridden Australia, so people have been seeking laundry detergents with the minimum of salts in them. None give percentages on their labels, so I went looking for lab tests. And what did I find? The “green” or “earth choice” or “organic” products were all in the bottom half for salt concentraion, but not actually at the bottom – the one with the least salts was… “homebrand”, the no-name plain product… which doesn’t advertise itself as “green” at all, just as cheap!
I’ve found similar things with food. Enquiring into where the apples at the organic food store came from… well, it took me a while to get them to tell me, but it turned out it was in the next state, and they were trucked in refrigerated trucks, about 500 miles. Then down at the local Chinese grocery, their apples… they bought them direct from a farm 15 miles away. Visiting that, “no, we’re not certified organic – but we don’t use artificial fertiliser, pesticides and things, those are too expensive, we just get cow manure from the next farm.”
Now, obviously this is not going to be true of every product, still it shows that often when they’re using such a label, they’re not telling exactly the whole truth.
If you are it, you don’t have to say so.
In absolute I agree with you. In the world of advertising, unfortunately, it is whoever shouts the loudest who gets the attention and the consumers’ votes. Hence, the need for standards, and advertising guidelines. And also, now, policing from consumers, via services such as the website I mention.
It’s good these are coming to light…we’ll probably be seeing more of this kind of stuff.
Yes, also the FTC is releasing new guidelines for green ads shortly.
Nice one.
I’d add yet another sin: Failure to speak out in a manner consistent with the values they advertise.
Example: Canon cameras attracts massive brand equity with ads expressing concern about wildlife and endangered species. They also fund environmental groups. But when it comes to condemning the Japanese “scientific” whaling program, which hunts endangered fin whales, they refuse comment.
If corporations are going to profit from an image of concern for the environment, we as activists ought to challenge them to take stands consistent with that image. Otherwise, it’s all talk, and no walk.
–b
You raise an interesting question. . .
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