Greenwashing is whitewashing with a green brush. It happens when a company spends more time and money claiming to be green than it does implementing green business practices.
Be a smart consumer
Environmental claims should be specific. Look for specific amounts (recycled content, a certain percentage less packaging, etc.)
Some claims are too vague to be meaningful. Terms like "eco-friendly" and "environmentally friendly" don't mean anything unless there is more specific information.
Degradable products don't save landfill space. Anything degradable put into a landfill degrades very slowly. Degradable does matter if you're composting because degradable materials will break down quickly into useful compost.
Symbols are useful. Look for the recycling symbol or green certification symbols like Energy Star, Green Seal, EPEAT, and WaterSense. See the Product Guides/Certifications page for more resources related to ecolabels.
Companies are offering consumers an ever-growing assortment of “green" options. But whether your environmental claims are about the product or the packaging, you'll need competent and reliable scientific evidence to support what you say. Find out more by consulting the FTC's revised Green Guides. Have you spotted what you think might be a deceptive claim or practice? File a complaint.
Greenwashing is the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service. There are more green products than ever before, and our Sins of Greenwashing tips can help you sort out the truly green products from the not-so-green ones.
Is green marketing just a series of lies? That's one conclusion to be drawn from a study that examines hundreds of environmental labeling claims and found pretty much all of them wanting, suffering from sins of either omission or commission.