Sick of being green washed? Part 1
Recently Barbie has been accused of it, Shell and BP deny claims that they do it but it seems like all and sundry are jumping on the green bandwagon to sell their products.
“Green washing,” is the combination of the words green and whitewashing. This term was created by environmentalist Jay Westerveld who coined the phrase when examining the ‘so called’ environmental towel policy at hotels around the world. Today, it is becoming ingrained into modern language as global warming remains top of the planet’s agenda. The term describes efforts, mostly in business, to create the impression that a company is implementing practices meant to improve the environment when it is not really doing so.
The Team at MoreEco
are constantly being sent products to review from green companies so we
always do a green wash check to see if a product can live up to it’s so
called environmental credentials:
- How many air miles has it done?
- Where, how and what has it been made of?
- Is
it packaged in an environmentally friendly way? (I can’t name all the
times when we have been sent items in bubble wrap or copious amounts of
unnecessary packaging!)
Back in December 2007, environmental marketing firm TerraChoice released a study called “The Six Sins of Green washing”
which found that more than 99% of 1,018 common consumer products
randomly surveyed were guilty of green washing. Out of a total of 1,753
environmental claims made, with some products having more than one,
only one was found not guilty of making a false or misleading green
marketing claim.
A good example of a company doing it right
is Ribena, with all their bottles made from recycled plastic and the
juice itself being produced under ethical conditions in the UK.
Marketing Manager for Ribena, Rachel Harris states, “We are committed
to making the supply chain for Ribena as environmentally friendly as
possible, from the way we grow our blackcurrants to the packaging in
which the products are wrapped.” Ribena’s cap- and label are not
recyclable but they are honest about this and state this is something
they are looking at.
Here at MoreEco
we feel that packaging for products should contain recycling
information so people can make informed choices when it comes to
purchasing. Check out this great example of clear and concise recycling
information on this OWL wireless electricity monitor.
In part two of this article, we question whether some energy services are as green as they state they are!
Tags: animals, demonstration, greenwash