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Sept 23, 2003 Many of you have probably never heard of the term Greenwashing. It is a term that I first heard through one of my Environmental Studies courses at York University. It is essentially the practice of making a product, practice or company appear to be environmentally friendly when it is not. It is the same process that many public figures with bad reputations use except they call it white washing in these cases. There are two basic types of greenwashers. There are the greenwashers that start out with the best of intentions. These are the people/organizations that develop products and use practices that were really intended to be environmentally friendly. For example using materials from the surrounding area, going organic or reducing packaging. Don't get me wrong this is all great. However, because these people/organizations are still within a capitalist society they ultimately end up sliding down the slippery slope of greed. For example consider how many cosmetic companies originally stated that they only sold products "NOT TESTED ON ANIMALS". However, as it became easier and cheaper to use old research from conventional labs the slogan changed to "AGAINST ANIMAL TESTING". This seems to be a small detail but it is really huge and illustrates the danger of greenwashing. People are made to believe that these products are better for the environment then everyday products. In reality it seems that these products are just as bad for the environment as brands that do not use greenwashing. The major difference is that they are usually more expensive. For example a recent article in NOW magazine (Sept 4-10) exposed many products that had been certified organic but were not. These products were seen to be safer for the environment because they were organic but in reality they all included ingredients that were synthetic or derived form questionable processes. Many of these organic brands had ingredients derived from petroleum-based products that are neither organic nor good for the environment. Also many of the ingredients had been linked to skin irritation and so were usually not certified as organic. The second type of greenwasher is the typical corporate sleezeball that usually has to use a public relations firm to make themselves look good. They use greenwashing as a way to make themselves look like good corporate citizens and to make a large profit. They know that there is a buck to be made off of environmentally conscious people and they will do anything to get at it. Anything except producing a truly environmentally friendly product. Their trick is to make their product lines look as if they were environmentally friendly without actually being environmentally friendly. They just use a lot of the same old advertising tricks. For example it is common practice to use keywords in advertising such as "new", "improved", "lite" or "helps" in order to make their products sound better then they are. For example "new" can relate to any change no matter how insignificant. Adding a spout to liquid laundry detergent makes it new without making any changes to the product itself. The same is true for green products. Many companies have green product lines but these products are often not any more environmentally friendly then other similar products or where not particularly environmentally harmful in the first place. The funniest example that I can think of is toilet paper that advertised itself as being biodegradable. Well the fact is toilet paper just like about every other type of paper is biodegradable by nature. Its made from trees and trees even in processed for biodegrade quite quickly when they are dead. This happens all the time in advertising. Consider French fries. They are often advertised as being low in saturated fats. Well good!!! Considering that they are made from potatoes and potatoes have no saturated fats in them I would have to wonder what they were doing to these potatoes. I'm not trying to stop anyone from being an environmentally/socially conscious shopper. What I'm telling you is to be really conscious. Do some research every environmental organization worth its salt has a website and most of these websites include articles on good or bad products. Research ingredients to see how they are obtained are they grown, collected, are they organic or are the derived from some synthetic origin. And by all means don't by a product just because it says it is green. Examine the product, read the ingredients and look at the small print. ------------ Email Mike Brintnell: mbrintnell@yahoo.ca Comment on this column in the forum. Tell a friend about this site! ------------ |
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