News Magazine of the UW Department of Communication
By Sue Yang
In the era of hybrid cars and organic foods, even garbage bags have gone “green,” and consumers can buy them in recyclable or biodegradable options.
Sounds like a good idea — until we consider the logistics of its disposal.
To begin with, would many people want to reclaim their used garbage bags from the dump? Probably not. But even if they did, ferreting out the recyclable bags from the rest of the trash at the landfill would be like playing an exponentially worse version of “Where's Waldo?”
Biodegradability also means little when trash bags end up in the air-tight tomb of modern landfills.
With limited exposure to moisture or bacteria, the biodegradable garbage bag's not breaking down any time soon, especially if it takes fruit peels years to degrade at a landfill.
Ever since the emergence of Al Gore's documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” awareness about human impacts on the environment have gone mainstream. And businesses in particular are seeing the value of “going green.”
But as the marketing of “green” garbage bags indicates, that doesn't necessarily mean that companies are greening up their products or manufacturing processes in ways that really benefit the environment.
In a 2007 study, environmental marketing company TerraChoice looked at the environmental claims on 1,018 products. Their results were shocking. All but one made a misleading environmental claim.
Companies making dubious environmental claims about their products and business practices are so common that there's now a word for the phenomenon: greenwashing.
TerraChoice categorized the techniques and dubbed them as the “six sins of greenwashing,”: hidden trade-off, no proof, vagueness, irrelevance, lesser of two evils and fibbing.
Of the six greenwashing techniques, telling outright lies were rare. Instead, companies relied on a more sophisticated version of a lie: half-truths.
The “sin of the hidden trade-off” means highlighting the good while leaving out the bad. Like a skilled magician or pickpocket, advertisers use the art of diversion to redirect the target's attention.
An example of this might be a company that advertises its light bulbs as being energy efficient while failing to mention that the bulbs contain hazardous material, such as mercury. Another common partial truth-telling tactic is the “sin of vagueness.” And one of its common forms comes in the guise of wholesome sounding phrases, such as “all natural.”
By playing a game of semantics companies, can get away with including formaldehyde in its cleaning products, or arsenic in its pest-control sprays, and call it “all natural.” Technically, it's not a lie to describe arsenic as a natural ingredient. The companies just neglected to add an important detail: It's also poisonous.
The “sin of vagueness” also applies to unqualified claims.
When a company makes a percentage claim, such as “50 percent more recycled content,” consider it suspect. Consumers should be asking: 50 percent more than what? Is it referring to the content in the actual product, or its packaging? Or is the claim comparing the product's recycled content to its competition, or an earlier version of the product?
Consumers should wonder if companies are using a seemingly large number to make its products look better than they actually are.
For instance, if a company were originally using only 2 percent recycled content in its product, a 50 percent increase would bump that up to a meager 3 percent (not as impressive when put in those terms).
The “sin of irrelevance” is another example of when a company makes much ado about nothing. An example of this is the claim “CFC free.”
Because of its damage to the protective ozone layer, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been banned from aerosol products since 1978, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
But since all aerosol products are now “CFC free,” products that bear that claim have no real environmental value over their competitors.
In addition, the commission says that CFCs might be replaced by VOCs—volatile organic compounds, a chemical substance that contributes to smog.
Just as VOCs are not a good alternative to CFCs, neither are products guilty of the “sin of lesser of two evils.” After all, whether a tobacco product is organic or not, there's still a good chance it'll give you cancer.
Lastly, no matter how good the environmental claim sounds, without proof there's no way to tell if the claim is legit. To avoid violating the “sin of no proof,” companies need to verify their claims with a certification, or an option for consumers to find more additional information, such as through a toll-free number or a company Web site.
However, consumers should also be wary of certifications.
The FTC and the Environmental Protection Agency say that the best certifications involve an independent third party that will review the product and visit the product's manufacturing location to ensure that the company's claims are true.
But some standards are dodgy. Some organizations allow companies to say they've met environmental standards without having to provide proof or undergo outside review.
With scruples like these, it's no wonder marketers have gained a notoriety on par with lawyers.
But what happened to consumer protection?
Voluntary Policing
The creator of “Green Human Environmental Blog,” Ed Steenman, found through his MBA thesis research that people preferred buying “green products” when given the option.
But ultimately, most consumers made purchasing decisions based on cost and settled on the nongreen option if it was cheaper than the greener alternative.
Unable to jack up prices, marketers found another way to cash in on the green trend, which involves duping consumers.
The Federal Trade Commission defines deceptive advertising as “a representation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead” and influence a reasonable person's decision to purchase a product, a practice that's punishable by law.
Yet somehow the FTC doesn't consider greenwashing to be a form of deceptive advertising.
Currently there are no regulations against using misleading environmental claims when marketing. There are only “guidelines” suggested by the FTC and the Environmental Protection Agency.
Called the “Green Guides,” the FTC admits that the guidelines offer “no quantifiable environmental impact due to its voluntary nature.”
Although the FTC is reconsidering its policy on handling misleading environmental claims, University of Washington marketing instructor April Atwood says the FTC is slow to make changes.
Although some companies, such as Ben & Jerry's or The Body Shop, are leading the way in being transparent about their environmental practices, they are the exception. Consequently, Atwood endorses the idea of nationally standardizing environmental claims on products, much like the nationally standardized labeling of organic foods.
Until then, consumers must rely on making their own informed purchases.
But luckily there are nonprofit organizations and green Web sites available to help consumers make greener purchasing decisions.
How to Avoid Greenwashing Scams
It's unlikely to find products that are 100 percent green. But that doesn't mean consumers should stop buying environmentally friendlier products.
The cumulative effect of buying products that are less harmful to the environment will make a noticeable impact. Not only is it better for the environment to buy the “greener” of two products, but it also sends a message to companies. If enough people make informed purchasing decisions and stop buying from companies who're participating the least in environmental innovation, those companies will see their profits drain. And in order to compete in the marketplace, they'll begin to produce legitimately greener products.
The following are some tips on how to avoid greenwashing scams:
When making greener purchases, it's important to consider the life cycle of a product:
It's not enough for products to have the triangular symbol with the three arrows. Consumers need to look at the numeric code inside the recycling symbol and find out if their community has facilities that can recycle those kinds of products. If it doesn't, there's no environmental benefit in buying it; it'll just end up in the trash.
In addition to doing a self-checklist for the “six sins of greenwashing,” there are also Web sites that consumers can consult to find certified green products.
Organizations, such as EcoLogo and Green Seal, explain the criteria they use when certifying a product, and provide a list of products (divided into easy to search categories) that they've certified.
Green blogs are also a good source to get tips and information about greenwashing. There are many that specialize by region or state that offer local alternatives to “big box” stores.
But not all green blogs are equal. Though it may be written by well-intentioned bloggers who have a genuine interest in sharing their environmental consciousness with others, they're usually not experts. And there are many blogs that unknowingly promote greenwashed products on their site.
The suggestions listed here are by no means exhaustive. But they are a starting point.
Fighting greenwashing is not about buying products that are 100 percent green. Unless consumers expect companies to ship their products via bicycle, that's virtually impossible.
It's about rewarding companies that make the effort to be transparent and innovative in their products and manufacturing practices.
If consumers really want greener options to choose from, they're going to have to hit companies where it hurts.
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