Call it the little green lie. So many companies are stretching the eco-truth that itâs making difficult for consumers to sort out claims like âall-natural,â âenvironmentally friendlyâ and ânontoxic.â
So TerraChoice Environmental Marketing looked into the matter. It surveyed more than 1,000 common consumer products ranging from toothpaste to caulking to printers to shampoo, and investigated the claims on their labels.
The companyâs findings are shocking: the claims on 99 per cent of the products turned out to be âgreenwash.â
âThere is a lot of consumer confusion around green claims, but thereâs a lot of money to be made by claiming your products are green so thatâs why companies do it,â says Melissa Peneycad, a consultant with the Ottawa-based company.
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âItâs an issue for companies that are really making an effort to do the right thing. There really is a large amount of consumer confusion. And hard-core green consumers tend to be the most skeptical. Theyâre saying, âI donât buy into thisâ and theyâll look for some kind of third-party certification. But there is hope and weâre doing our best to educate consumers in this area.â
Following its study, TerraChoice declared the âSix Sins of Greenwashing, a light-hearted way of drawing attention to exaggerated or bogus claims. The environmental shortcomings were so prevalent that TerraChoice separated them into six categories, the âsix sins.â
- Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off: These are companies making one claim while ignoring other harmful environmental impacts, such as âenergy-efficientâ electronics that contain hazardous materials.
- Sin of No Proof: Companies make claims on their products, such as shampoos deemed âcertified organicâ but thereâs no way of checking out the claim and no verifiable certification.Â
- Sin of Vagueness: Products claiming to be 100 per cent natural when they may contain naturally occurring substances that are hazardous, such as arsenic and formaldehyde.
- Sin of Irrelevance: While CFCs have been banned in Canada for 20 years now, many products are still declared âCFC-free.â
- Sin of Fibbing: These are products which falsely claim to be certified by an internationally recognized environmental standard such as EcoLogo, Energy Star or Green Seal.
- Sin of Lesser of Two Evils: Organic cigarettes? Fuel-efficient SUVs? Huh?
âConsumers want to live a more environmentally sustainable lifestyle,â says Ms. Peneycad. âItâs important to be able to buy green with confidence.â
Manufacturers and suppliers can request an assessment and EcoLogo certification in order to determine whether a productâs claims are valid or if they commit one of the Six Sins.
EcoLogoâs insignia lets consumers know that an independent, credible and expert third party has verified a productâs green qualifications.