Weekly Blog Postings #5
Sometimes it is hard to believe that a lot of products are being greenwashed. Some of the times you can see that something doesn’t seem right when a highly dangerous product’s company says that they are lowering their toxin levels or making their products safer. Sometimes you had no idea that a product was a lot dangerous than the way it is being made out to be. Here are a few companies that have really greenwashed their products. You may be surprised or some of these may not surprising at all.
Examples of Greenwashing:
• Mobil Chemical added starch to their 'Hefty' trash bags which were labeled as biodegradable. They were sued for the biodegradability claims and removed the term from their packaging and advertising.
• BAE Systems promoting weapons as “environmentally friendly”.
• Shell advertising that insinuated oil refineries emit “fresh flowers” instead of pollutants.
• Exxon Mobil indicating they were reducing greenhouse gas emissions while they were actually increasing.
• Kraft's Post Selects Cereals, promoting its cereals as having "natural ingredients" when, the corn used in the cereal is genetically engineered.
• Tyson Chicken promoting its products as "all natural," even though the company uses antibiotics with its chickens.
• Comanche Trace, a commercial developer, bills its golf courses as "great habitats," even though golf courses use pesticides that poison surrounding groundwater.
• Clairol claims to have a "truly organic experience" with its Herbal Essences line of shampoos but, chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulfate, propylene glycol and D&C red no. 33, which are not organic are used in the ingredients.
Were you surprised to read that some of these companies’ products are being greenwashed? Why or why not? Which one were you most surprised about? Least surprised about?
Weekly Blog Postings # 4 Greenwashing
Seven Deadly Sins of Greenwashing!
TerraChoice is an Environmental Marketing Consulting that practices and converts knowledge of markets, science and marketing into winning, client-centered solutions to help sustainability leaders deliver results. In 2007, they released a report stating that “Of the 2,219 North American products surveyed, over 98% committed at least one of the previously identified Seven Sins of Greenwashing." Research done by TerraChoice shows not all companies are engaging in greenwash. For those that are you should look for these seven sins. If one or more of the sins are found then chances greenwashing is covering up something.
Here is a summary of the seven sins:
1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-off, committed by suggesting a product is 'green' based on an unreasonably narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues. If something comes from nature or a natural thing doesn’t always mean that it is green. An example of that would be paper.
2. Sin of No Proof, committed by an environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by a reliable third-party certification. Pretty much if there isn’t any proof then chances it could not be healthy.
3. Sin of Vagueness, committed by every claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. It may have the title of being green but doesn’t have any information to back it up with actual “green” ingredients.
4. Sin of Irrelevance, committed by making an environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products.
5. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils, committed by claims that may be true within the product category, but that risk distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. A fuel-efficient car is an example of this.
6. Sin of Fibbing is committed by making environmental claims that are simply false. The most common examples were products falsely claiming to be Energy Star certified or registered.
7. The Sin of False Labels, is committed by a product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement actually exists.
In your opinion, which do you think is the most common sin that companies use? Why do you think this?
Weekly Blog Postings # 3 Greenwashing
History of Greenwashing
During the contemporary environmental movement of the mid 60’s companies started to use environmental images ads on their products in order to promote them. In these images were normally eco-friendly. This initial wave of this greenwashing was labeled as ecopornography. This was the time of the anti nuclear movement. People were not happy about the nuclear testing so the nuclear power division ran a few ads that stated "everywhere, extolling the anti-polluting virtues of atomic power" as "'reliable, low-cost...neat, clean, safe.'" Other companies used these types of greenwashing in order to promote their products. As time went on companies and people became smarter and more aware of greenwashing.
In the early 90’s, a poll was done that showed that 77% of customers are affected and buy things due to a corporation's environmental reputation. Another poll done showed that 84% of people considered corporate environmental crimes more serious than insider trading or price fixing. Because of these polls companies tried to go as green as they could go. One fourth of new products made were labeled as recyclable, "biodegradable" "ozone friendly" or "compostable”.
Throughout the next few years some of the world's greatest polluters spent millions on making their products seem more “green”. A few of the companies started to put animal friendly images on their packaging, some started to use wording like “environment safe” and “good for the air” and others statements that were earth friendly.
While all of this was going on in the US, Europe was dealing with greenwashing itself. A Swiss chemical corporation was trying to restore its image after the 1986 Basel spill. They ran advertisements which made them look like they were environmental friendly by using a forest, a tranquil pond, and a clean looking river. A corporation in Great Britain, which happened to be considered one of world's largest producers of the ozone, advertised its use "a new generation of ozone friendly fluorocarbons" to cover up its real use of air pollution.
Third world country companies also were starting to use greenwashing. Countries like India, Malaysia, Argentina and Brazil were using greenwashing as ways to get customers to feel safer for using their products.
Even though it seemed like the world was being brained washed and fooled by companies and their greenwashing, people started finding ways to detect through the greenwashing ads. They came up with things to look for when researching a product. They also found ways to tell the average consumer about greenwashing and how to not to be fooled by it.
How do you feel about greenwashing being around since the 60’s? What are your feelings on greenwashing being all over the world? Are you surprised that even third world countries are using it? Why or why not?
Weekly Blog Postingss # 2 Greenwashing
Greenwashing is everywhere we look. Companies try to make their products out to be something special, healthy, and/or safe that the regular consumer should use. Companies will try very hard to allure customers to purchase their product but a smart health consumer should know how and what to look for with greenwashing. Greenwashing is mainly designed by journalists, politicians and activists to catch the consumer’s eye but there are some things to look for to see if the products’ information was made by the government and/ or a company. These are made to know what to look for when it comes to detecting and finding greenwashing. These eight things to do are:
• Follow the Money Trail: many companies donate to political parties and other groups in the community. A few companies actually disclose their annual reports to who they exactly donate to. You, as a consumer should ask about all their donations, not just those they boast about in glossy documents, even the ones that aren’t published.
• Follow the membership trail: most companies boast about the virtues of their environmental policy and performance but hide their anti-environmental activism. Find out what industry association companies are and see what their policies are.
• Follow the paper trail: a few companies will make submissions to the government on a wide range of issues. These submissions often will be posted to a website. Ask about submissions made by the company and their lobbying on issues you are interested in.
• Look for skeletons in the company's closet: every company has major problems that it doesn't want the public to know about. Some companies include information in the annual reports about problems that have been in the past years but most often companies try to keep their problems in the dark and hidden.
• Ask for access to information: many companies will make claims about their products being in the best quality and has the best customer satisfaction. You shouldn’t always take their word. Ask around for information of history of the company. If there is something that interests you, ask to see it. If the company tells you that it is commercially confidential that is a way of corporate telling you know no.
• Ask about international consistency: most companies operate with different standards in other countries. Check to see what their operating standards are, what their procedures are and whether they opt for lower standards.
• Check how they handle their critics: some companies go to extraordinary lengths to try to silence their critics. If they do try to do this see if there were any legal battles with this company or not.
• Test for consistency over time: it is common for a company to launch a policy and then starve it of funds. Also a company might make promises when they are under public pressure but never intend on keeping them when the spotlight fades away.
Hopefully these eight things will help you as a consumer to look beyond the catchy information and promises of a product of a consumer. Hopefully you can read the lines when it comes to learning about a company’s history.
What are your thoughts on asking companies for their information? Would you be more willing to keep digging if they don’t give their information to you the first time you asked for it? Why or Why not?
Weekly Postings # 1 Greenwashing
Greenwashing is a term used to describe the practice of companies twisting their products and policies to make them more environmentally friendly. Two ways they do this is by cutting costs cuts and the reductions in the use of resources. The term green comes from "Going Green", saving the environment and recycling. But what companies do is they make their product look more environmentally helpful. One way a company does this is by looks and wording. For example a company that has a toxic chemical in their product, they may put a tree on the label saying that safe to the environment. Having a tree on a bottle will more likely make the customer want to buy it because of the tree. Another term that environmentalists use to describe greenwashing is linguistic detoxification. This term is normally used when referring to when a name of a certain substance or toxic level is changed, it will less likely to consider a certain toxic. Having different wording can sometimes make the customer be more willing to purchase something that sounds okay to use.
