Jyme chooses a new favorite word: Greenwash

I admit it. I have a new favorite word. I chose it carefully from all of the other newly minted and made-up words spun by marketers in the last couple of decades: Greenwash. I know the word greenwash has been around a while, but it took a few years of snarky repetition to replace D’oh! on my list.

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And, like D’oh!, the word is full of merit and history.

What is greenwashing?

The term “greenwash” was born in the 1991 March/April issue of Mother Jones magazine, according to Wikipedia. It is defined there as “generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product, to give the feeling of nature, for example putting an image of a forest on a bottle of harmful chemicals. Environmentalists often use greenwashing to describe the actions of energy companies, which are traditionally the largest polluters.”

I find this fascinating. Companies would lie to consumers to sell more products to cash in on the current green rage? No! Say it ain’t so.

As part of the true green industry, I doubt you’re guilty of greenwashing. You don’t want to just cash in on the latest green craze. You’re in it for the long haul.

But you may be greenwashing without realizing it. There are several ways to check yourself. Here’s one of the most amusing.

6 un-green-ly sins

One of the most interesting takes on greenwashing comes from environmental marketing firm TerraChoice. The company’s “The Six Sins of Greenwashing” covers some on the obvious and not-so-blatant transgressions companies make to put a green sheen on their products.

Here’s Sin 3, the Sin of Vagueness, to give you a taste:

Garden insecticides promoted as “chemical-free.” In fact, nothing is free of chemicals. Water is a chemical. All plants, animals, and humans are made of chemicals as are all of our products. If the marketing claim doesn’t explain itself (“here’s what we mean by ‘eco’ …”), the claim is vague and meaningless. Similarly, watch for other popular vague green terms: nontoxic, all-natural, environmentally friendly, and earth-friendly.

Are you selling any add-ons that are vaguely “nontoxic” or “earth-friendly”? Do you have any information to back up the products’ claims? Do you even know where to look?

One place to go is the government ecolabelling program, EcoLogo, which is managed by TerraChoice. EcoLogo provides a market incentive to manufacturers of truly environmentally beneficial products in more than 120 product categories so consumers know which claims to trust.

You can download a pdf and look at the six sins yourself.

For more: TerraChoice, (800) 478-0399; http://www.terrachoice.com/Home/Six%20Sins%20of%20Greenwashing. EcoLogo, www.ecologo.org.

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- Jyme Mariani

March 2008