Report Reveals Greenwashing is Rife

A report published by North American environmental marketing firm TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, entitled The Seven Sins of Greenwashing (a follow up to the 2007 report, The Six Sins of Greenwashing) has revealed that the number of products making environmental claims has increased by an average of 79 percent in stores visited in 2007 and 2008, and 98 percent of products commit at least one of the Sins of Greenwashing highlighted in the report

TerraChoice researchers investigated retailers in the US, UK, Australia and Canada in November 2008 and January 2009, with instructions to record allproducts making environmental claims. 

In the US and Canada 2,219 products making 4,996 green claims were recorded, and tested against guidelines provided by the US Federal Trade Commission and other relevant bodies for environmental labelling.

Over 98 percent of the 2,219 products assessed committed at least one of the previously identified Six Sins of Greenwashing and a Seventh emerged – ‘the Sin of Worshipping False Labels.’ In practice this means generating fake certification labels or false suggestions of third party endorsement. 

Greenwashing is rampant, particularly in the categories of toys, baby products, cosmetics and cleaning products with a meagre 25 of the 2,219 products evaluated found to be ‘Sin-free.’

What Are the Seven Sins?

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-off – Suggesting a product is green based on narrow criteria e.g. saying paper is eco-friendly because it comes from a sustainably-managed forest even though its production may involve environmentally damaging processes such as CO2 emissions and water and air pollution.

2. Sin of No Proof – lack of substantiation for claims by supporting information or third party certification.

3. Sin of Vagueness – Broad claims that lack any real meaning, such as ‘All Natural.’ Arsenic and formaldehyde are naturally occurring and poisonous, which does not make them very green!

4. Sin of Irrelevance – Truthful but pointless claims such as CFC-free, which is irrelevant because CFCs are banned anyway.

5. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils – Claims that may be true within a category but distract the consumer from the broader environmental impacts of that category e.g. organic cigarettes or hybrid cars.

6. Sin of Fibbing – Simply making totally false environmental claims.

7. Sin of Worshipping False Labels – Creating fake certification labels or false suggestions of third party endorsement.

Other findings included:

• Green advertising has increased tenfold in the last 20 years and has almost tripled since 2006.
• Greenwashing presents risks such as misleading consumers into thinking their purchase has some kind of environmental benefit when in fact it doesn’t; taking market share away from products making legitimate eco-claims; leading to scepticism about all environmental claims. 
• Legitimate eco-labelling is also on the rise and almost twice as common as it was in the previous study (up from 14 percent to 23 percent of products).
• Greenwashing is an international problem with similar patterns found in the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
• 23 percent of products commit The Sin of Worshipping False Labels. 

Cosmetic products were mainly guilty of committing The Sin of Vagueness, by using the term ‘Natural,’ because they were not adhering to any official definition and it is misleading as some natural substances are toxic. They were also found guilty of The Sin of No Proof by bearing organic claims which were not supported by certification schemes. 

Advice for Consumers

TerraChoice advise consumers to keep supporting genuinely green products rather than giving up, looking for products with reliable eco –labels (see the report), opt for products offering transparency, information and education and for green shopping tools visit www.sinsofgreenwashing.org and www.ecologo.org. 

Source: TerraChoice Report