Greenwashing Defined
Since the beginning, we have understood that there is a great deal of leeway given to those who tout their products or services. Advertising hype has likely been around from the earliest times when merchants came to town to sell their wares. Frankly, the public is not ignorant about the product hype that precedes the sale of nearly everything. We are not pleased with the snake oil salesman, but frankly we like to be charmed by what he has to say. Recently, a show called “Pitchmen” relates how people get an idea to market where we learn that how you present is frankly more important than the product itself.
The disconnect from reality is easily shown by placing a beautiful girl in a bikini on nearly any advertisement. The girl may have no relevance to the product, but it will produce heightened results. The psychology of marketing actually goes much further than sex appeal, and businesses employ a variety of techniques to grab a market share for their product.
Greenwashing at its best is still the hype or over-exaggeration of the benefits of a product or service. At its worse, greenwashing is a premeditated and intentional desire to mislead people knowing that the product or service is not as represented. Wikipedia defines Greenwashing as “Greenwash (a portmanteau of green and whitewash) is a term used to describe the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources.” This might pass as a form of “Business as Usual” in the advertising marketplace except that the underlying issue of health impact and environmental concerns make this misrepresentation worse than innocent deception.
How is Green washing done? Let me offer 10 ways a product or service is Greenwashed:
1- Green Misdirection: Ignore the real issue and divert attention to the “other things” that are better. For example, Fiji bottled water operates out of a LEED silver certified building, though they transport the water more than 4000 to the US, put it in plastic bottles, and ship it again throughout the country.
2- Green by Proxy: Green by Proxy is buying someone else’s Green solution without really changing the way you operate. If you buy a CFL bulb, a Green cleaning product, or even a Prius; you are using someone else’s solution. It does not mean that you have changed anything in your own life other than these purchasing decisions.
3- The Green Dumb Down: Some products are not Green, so the manufacturer will produce the very same product that has been diluted or slightly altered. They then slap a Green label on it, but dilution of harmful ingredients does not make a product Green.
4- Charitably Green: Tout the fact that a few pennies from every purchase (of an otherwise non-Green product) will be given to a Green charity. It will surprise you how many companies mask their un-Green product with a charitably Green wrapper.
5- Token Green: This process is defined as doing the minimum that can be done to make something Green. So, a hotel can put in CFL bulbs and declare that they are Green although there is so much more than could and should be done.
6- Green by Discovery: No change is required with this method. The company discovers that there is already something Green about their product or service. There is no Green commitment except for the realization that they tripped over an idea already in existence.
7- Green Pretenders: There are more than a few products that blatantly misrepresent the products, poorly label, or confuse the buyers to produce sales even though the product is not Green by any reasonable standard.
8- Radically Green: Some Green products are sold just for the environmental wackos (sorry, but its true). The overhype is not on the product, but on the necessity to buy the product.
9- Mean Green: Hate runs two ways. Villainizing the opposition is kind of like the Mac vs PC commercials where the purpose is to denigrate the competition to make your product seem better.
10- Meaningless Green: Some Green claims are not relevant to the subject. So, does it matter that the package says, “No Heavy Metals,” “CFC-free,” or “No Bleach Added”? These ingredients are either already banded or may mask other ingredient still in the product.
When a project called TerraChoice did a survey of 1018 products making 1753 environmental claims, they found that only one product made truthful claims. The rest fudged, lied, and deceived the public with one or more of their environmental claims. The truth is often far from the claims for environmental concern.
By the way, consumers should know (but generally don’t) that EPA registration does not mean a product is safe. Terms like “Green,” Eco-Friendly” and “Earth Friendly” are not regulated terms. Many companies actually make up their Green certification themselves with the aid of a computer graphics program. And, everyone should know that labels may not contain fully disclosure of all the ingredients in the product. There is simply a lot of room to fuel the Greenwashing mania.
The pitfall of Going Green is not doing it right. It is all to easy too follow a mistaken Green path that will come back to harm your reputation later on. So, if you are going to Go Green, be sure to follow an “Authentic Green” path that will show that your business, product, or service is the real deal. Consider the janitorial services across America. They all claim to be Green although only a few are actually Green clean certified. 99% of all janitorial firms use Green to attract customers, not because they believe in it or practice a Green business.
By: Michael Richmond
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