Majority Of Green Products Make Bogus Claims
Consumers seeking to alleviate their eco-conscience by purchasing products describing themselves as “environmentally friendly” may need to consider planting a tree instead.
According to the Canadian consulting firm TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, a mere 2 percent of the consumer products calling themselves “˜green’ can actually back their eco-friendly claims with hard evidence.
The other 98 percent of the products they examined engage in what TerraChoice calls “the sin of greenwashing.”Â
On the company’s website, they define greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.” According to their most recent industry report, greenwashing can take a variety of deceptively misleading forms.
One of the newest greenwashing trends identified by TerraChoice is the “worship of false labels,” whereby the company responsible for marketing a product puts a phony symbol or insignia on the product’s label that is intended to make consumers believe that the product has been certified by a (non-existent) third-party environmental organization.
Another commonly used marketing tactic is the “sin of vagueness.”  Here, a label makes a claim that is “so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer.” TerraChoice’s website offers the common example of products claiming to be “˜all-natural.’  “Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally-occurring,” reads company’s website. They’re all also extremely toxic. “˜All-natural’ does not necessarily equate to green, they caution.
Other greenwashing sins include vagueness, lack of evidence, irrelevant claims and flat-out fibbing.
According to a survey conducted by TerraChoice, the number of green products on store shelves has increased significantly in the last two years. Consequently, marketers have grown increasingly inventive with their bogus eco-claims.
Looking on the sunny-side of the situation, TerraChoice’s executive Scott McDougall says, “The good news is that the growing availability of green products shows that consumers are demanding more environmentally responsible choices and that marketers and manufacturers are listening.”
“The bad news is that TerraChoice’s survey of 2,219 consumer products in Canada and the U.S. showed that 98 percent committed at least one sin of greenwashing and that some marketers are exploiting consumers’ demand for third-party certification by creating fake labels or false suggestions of third-party endorsement.”
Since 1995, TerraChoice has stewarded the Environmental Choice for the Canadian government, making them one the most trusted names in the eco-industry.Â
Among TerraChoice’s other customers are the World Bank and numerous privately-owned companies such as Canon, Husky Energy and InterfaceFlor.
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