This relatively new behavior has some big corporations in a tizzy.
Putting authentically nontoxic products on the market takes a lot of
time and money. Those factors don’t cozy up with short-term gains, so
many big companies are turning to greenwashing for a quick fix. They
lure conscious consumers into a false sense of eco-security with leafy
ads and green soundbytes. When it comes to backing up their claims,
however, these companies prefer chicanery over hard facts.
We dug up 25 of the products most prone to greenwashing attempts. If
you see these "green” products on the shelves, take heed. That green
tint may have more to do with dollars than chlorophyll.
25. Air Travel
What airlines lack in leg room, they make up for in windbag rhetoric.
EasyJet continues with their
brazen claims that traveling on an easyJet plane is better for the
environment than driving a hybrid car. And the makers of Airbus have
been marketing themselves as a green industry leader, with
advertisements showing jets filled with natural
landscapes and flying in clear blue skies.
In 2005, British Airways boldly moved to offset its emissions. The
project failed after BA admitted to offsetting a shaming total of 3,000
tons of emissions–less
than 0.01% of its 27 million tons of emissions in that same
two-year window, and substantially less than the carbon dispersed by a
single day of the BA carrier flights between London and New York.
24. Toys
Image: Non-Toxic Tots
Parents are willing to spend more on items that they feel will keep
lead paint and cadmium
out of their child’s toy box. Widespread toy recalls in Europe and the
U.S. have also pushed toymakers into greening their operations.
Toy giant Toys ‘R’ Us recently tried to cash in on increased
awareness thing without actually detoxing their toys. They invited
customers to buy Toys ‘R’ Us-branded reusable shopping bags. They also
changed their signature "R” to include a recycle symbol.
While this may keep a plastic bag or two out of the landfill, a
store-branded reusable bag isn’t what parents are looking for. They want
toys that won’t poison their kids, harm the workers making them, or
further damage the planet.
23. Software
IT spending isn’t what it was 10 years ago. As a result, many
software vendors are trying on a coat of green to bolster their
reputations. Big companies like Microsoft and Oracle are releasing
products to help oil, gas, and utilities companies cut power usage and
estimate emissions.
Last year, Microsoft added some minor power-saving features to its
new Windows 7, including a low-light setting for your monitor. At the
same time, the company pushed users to buy
a new computer to run Windows 7. It didn’t hurt that it’s hard to
install Windows 7 on your existing machine. No wonder Windows 7 didn’t
win Microsoft any green
awards.
22. Meat
Lots of companies advertise their meat as "wholesome,” "premium
quality,” and "all natural.” Despite these labels, they source their
meat from factory
farms, feed their animals genetically modified (GMO) corn, and inject
them with saltwater for a plumping effect.
Tyson, for example, got
busted for slapping an "all natural” label on its chickens, even
though they’re treated with antibiotics and fed GMO corn.
Hormel, meanwhile, has reduced more than 5 million pounds of
packaging from its products and promotes "all natural ingredients” in
its Natural
Choice deli meats. But Hormel is not doing the real ecological work
by reducing the enormous environmental footprint of the factory
farms where its meat is sourced.
21. Personal Care and Beauty
Image: Eliazar/Flickr
Natural shampoos and conditioners are a multi-million
dollar market, but just how "natural” are they? Can they hold up to
their claims for being good for your lovely locks and for the planet?
Take Clairol’s Herbal
Essences. It has claimed a "truly organic experience” in the past.
But lauryl sulfate, propylene glycol and D&C red no. 33 aren’t
really that organic. For most women, it takes a little more than
dermatitis-causing synthetic
fragrances to generate shouts of "Yes! Yes! Yes!” while lathering
up in a steamy shower.
20. Home Appliances
Image: Stuart
Spivack/Flickr
Today, most EnergyStar-rated appliances actually will save you money
and carbon. But that doesn’t stop manufacturers from blowing a little
more hot air into your dishwasher and dryer. As with many greenwashing
campaigns, the suspicion occurs in the omission.
In a recent
campaign, GE claimed that they can reduce a family’s energy use and
greenhouse gas emissions through GE technologies and household
appliances. For some reason, GE didn’t share how much their appliances
contribute to reducing monthly energy costs per home, or how many of
their appliances are needed to see a measurable reduction. And while the
image of a tree hugging a house in their commercial plays into a
consumer’s eco-conscience, that tree isn’t saying if GE’s manufacturing
operations are helping to deliver a carbon-neutralized
appliance to your home.
19. Breakfast Cereals
The breakfast industry’s vocabulary includes flakes, tigers, loops,
and leprechauns. Smoke and mirrors fit well into that kind of habitat.
Cereal boxes are tattooed with claims of vitamins, antioxidants and
fiber. But those Vitamin C-packed berries may also contain pesticide
residue. Cereal maker Kraft, for example, produces a
Natural Advantage line of cereal that includes "antioxidants” and
"natural fiber.” Yet the company uses genetically modified corn,
potatoes, and soy in its morning treats, as well as milk products from
rBGH (growth hormone)-treated cows.
18. Tampons and Sanitary Pads
Tampons without applicators, like those sold by
o.b., claim to save up to one pound of landfill waste per woman, per
year by foregoing applicators. But they don’t mention the tons of
herbicides, insecticides, fertilizers, fungicides, and other
chemicals used to produce cotton crops in the United States. Sorry
o.b., but there is nothing green about chemicals that cause cancer,
birth defects or wildlife toxicity. Factor in the applicator, and you
have all those bloated landfills, too.
Sanitary pads and many brand-name
tampon applicators contain petroleum-based plastics that are not
biodegradable. These generally end up in the landfill. How’s that for a
monthly contribution?
17. Dairy
Dairy products fall victim to the "all-natural” curse. Those
"natural” products may not contain pesticides, but the cows behind them
may well dine
on pesticide-laden, genetically modified crud for feed.
One of the most famous cases of dairy greenwashing involves Dean
Foods, the country’s largest dairy company. It pulled green
bait-and-switch with its Silk and Horizon-brand products. Dean
downgraded several well-established Horizon products from organic to
"natural,” an unregulated, relatively meaningless term. Dean didn’t
inform major retailers of the switch. Instead, like a green ninja, they
stealthily removed the word "organic” from the packaging without making
any other changes, prompting national retailers like Target, to
mislabel non-organic dairy products as organic. Habituated consumers
continued to pay extra for products that used to be organic.
16. Fur
Image by F. Bjørnstad
In a bold new ad campaign, the Fur Council of Canada (FCC) invites
each of us to be environmental activists by—wait for it—buying more
fur. The FCC is hoping that you will buy into their feel-good image that
the fur industry is a vital part of the livelihood of rural families
and an environmental protector. Somehow, you can make an "ecological
choice in harmony with nature” by wearing an animal taken from the local
ecosystem on your epidermis. Just put on blinders when you pass the fur farm
where the animal was probably raised.
15. Hotels
Image: Lisa
Brewster/Flickr
New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld first
coined the term greenwashing after discovering some disingenuous hotel
cost-cutting methods in 1986. The hotel industry had a common practice
of placing green placards in each room to promote the reuse of towels.
This would purportedly help the hotel save water and to consequently
"save the environment.” Westerveld found that despite their promises,
little effort had been put toward recycling by these offending hotels.
The trend is bigger than just towels. If you are an eco-tourist willing
to pay for environmentally responsible accommodations, you may not
be getting what you paid for. A recent independent study by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing
found that 99% of all products and hotel services that are being
labeled as "green” (by hotels themselves) do not live up to their
claims. These so-called eco-hotels promise carbon-neutral practices and
investment in carbon offsets. In reality, they only offset a fraction of
their overall energy usage. Most hotels are looking for easy,
inexpensive ways to add
some green cred to their name, but do not pass that savings on to
their guests, or reinvest in advancing their green practices often
enough.
14. Household Cleaning Products
After groceries, household products are what most Americans are
willing to pay a little more for if they’re both family-friendly and
environmentally safe. Some manufacturers want to meet consumers halfway
by selling products that are about 50% green.
Clorox, for example, is using common greenwashing images of a leafy
forest to cash in on the green revolution and to promote their Green
Works Cleaning Wipes. They advertise the wipes as being
biodegradable, but what about the chemicals in the wipes, how well do
they break down in the environment? And the plastic container that these
wipes are packaged in is definitely not
biodegradable.
13. Snacks
The claim of "all natural” enters the ring once again with snacks.
Take Cheetos.
They hope you’ll forget their signature day-glo orange puffs in favor
of a high-fat, low-nutrient "natural” alternative containing
high-fructose corn syrup, oil, and corn from genetically modified
sources.
Then there’s Sunchips, which emphasizes its connection with its
namesake by claiming that Sunchips
from California are made with solar energy. The claim doesn’t
mention, however, how much of the manufacturing energy used to the make
the chips is offset by solar.
Sunchips and Cheetos parent company PepsiCo is indeed making slow
inroads towards more sustainable snack production, but for now, the
company’s greenwashing exceeds its implementation.
12. Disposable Diapers
Landfills are stuffed with
disposable diapers. But that doesn’t prevent disposable diaper
companies from trying out a good greenwash.
Huggies’ Pure
and Natural line goes invites consumers to discover the "pure bliss
of a diaper that includes gentle, natural materials.” But parents may
be too sleep-deprived to see what’s lurking beyond the leaves and
smiling baby on the package. Although organic cotton is "included” in
the outer cover, the actual organic content remains a mystery. Also,
Kimberly Clark won’t reveal whether the cotton is certified
organic. For inexplicable reasons, the diapers also don’t include
organic cotton on the inside surface of the diaper, which actually
touches the baby’s skin. And while we are at it, what are the inner
lining and core materials sourced from?
Huggies also wraps their Pure and Natural line in packaging
boasting a laughable content of 20% post-consumer materials. True
eco-companies are going big by using 100% and using unbleached
cotton in their baby products. Huggies also does not sell a single
biodegradable diaper.
Huggies might be the one dropping a load with these "pure and
natural” diapers.
11. Paper Products
Image: D Sharon
Pruitt/Flickr
What we once called "paper plates,” and avoided due to the fact that
they were single use and going into the landfill, are now being promoted
as green alternatives by some companies. GreenGlobe calls its
land-fillers "eco-friendly
biodegradable tableware.” GG’s website smacks of all things good and
green in this world: their logo is green, their name is green, and
their homepage images are of green mountains, fields and a few rainbows
for good measure. Even if their products are as green as they say they
are, the point remains that these plates are still single-use,
disposable items just like those old, flimsy paper plates that left you
wearing your meal on your lap.
10. Pet Food
Image: Purrs and Paws
of A.R.A.S./Flickr
Shoppers buying organics for themselves are looking to feed Fido some
of the same. But it’s not just the eco-minded consumer seeking out
natural pet foods. Many mainstream consumers went searching after pets
were left sick and dying from kibble manufactured
in China. The pet food tested positive for both melamine and
cyanuric acid, which was later found out to have been added as
cost-saving bulking agents.
Some companies are responding to that demand with a coat of green
sheen. Iams, for example, tests on
animals. Many also promote their pet foods with meaningless claims
of being "all-natural” and "healthy” while incorporating feed-lot meats
and genetically modified grain. Buyer beware.
9. Laundry Detergents
Image: Elmada/Flickr
How often have you seen images of freshly washed clothes waving in
the sunshine, or a mountain stream following past pristine forests in a
detergent commercial? Purex
Mountain Breeze commercials feature just that, but also contain endocrine-disrupting
synthetic fragrances and chemical ingredients like Benzenesulfonic
acid, C10-C16-alkyl derivatives and Alcohols, C12-16, and ethoxylated
(Isureth-4).
The Tide brand takes a different approach to greenwashing. Tide High
Efficiency (HE) detergent is a highly concentrated cleanser that lives
in a smaller bottle than the rest of P&G’s detergents. The bottle
contains less plastic, and the liquid contains less water, making HE a
relatively eco-sound choice. You’d think P&G would do the same with
all of its other detergents, but it doesn’t. In fact, P&G’s Ariel
washing power and liquid detergent is one P&G product that is banned
in the USA due its historically high
phosphorus (brightener) content. This detergent also contains
benzene-based brighteners, which are classified as "toxic to not
harmful” (i.e. they can be
toxic) to fish, algae and crustaceans.
P&G continues to attempt a "green perception shift” with PUR, its global brand of water filter,
through unproven statements about how their PUR products actually create
safer drinking water sources and "help the environment.” So why isn’t
P&G making at least one 100% biodegradable detergent as part of
their commitment to clean water?
8. Mattresses
Image: Evil
Erin/Flickr
The mattress industry is filled with confusing terms like
"eco-friendly,” "natural” and "organic.” One company even claims that on
their mattresses, you "sleep closer to nature.” Yet the production
history of most mattresses is less about counting sheep and more like
the Silence of the Lambs.
Chemical-free mattresses might be a pipe dream, since the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
instituted the national open-flame mattress flammability standard that
went into effect in 2007. By law, you have to sleep on something flame
retardant. Most companies accomplish this with chemicals, though some use rayon-based fiber
pads as a flame barrier.
The chemistry doesn’t end there. Some companies use cotton, soy and
bamboo-based faoms in their "green” mattress lines. Cotton, however, is
the world’s most pesticide-intensive crop. It also requires heavy
irrigation, taxing local water supplies. Textiles such as rayon and
bamboo, while created from renewable resources, are pulped and imbued
with hazardous chemicals that include caustic soda and sulphuric acid.
The process impacts the sensitive regions where these trees and grasses
are harvested, not to mention the workers exposed to those substances.
7. Biofuel
Image: Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz
The pursuit of alternative fuel choices is a priority for countries
worldwide. Until then, we have pat-on-back fuels like
ethanol to waste our time and money on. Ethanol truly
sucks, but it goes with the American corn subsidies
like peanut butter and jelly, which is why it is being promoted over
other higher-yielding and truly sustainable fuel sources.
6. Cars
Image: Ecohuddle
You’ve seen the ads. Cars parked in green, foresty settings, as
though they grew from the forest floor. SUVs rolling down a country road
as fields of happy sunflowers crane their slender necks for a better
view.
GM one example of a company that is proud to be green(washed). Its
"Gas-friendly to Gas-free” campaign features a 2010 Yukon Denali Hybrid
that tops out at a meager 21 mpg. Moreover, super-efficient vehicles
represent a small percentage of GM’s yearly production, while they still
engage heavily in the production of gas-guzzling cars and
trucks. GM’s green marketing fails to note that the company currently
produces fifty-one models that get less than 30 mpg, including
thirty-five that get less than 20 mpg.
5. Gas
Energy companies are some of the worst offenders in the green sheen
game. BP’s redesigned
logo is one notorious example. The green stylized flower suggests
that BP is a company that is both environmentally friendly and
responsible.
Sadly, the only thing green about BP is
their BS. Even as they claim to be concerned about emissions—they
speak frequently about their efforts to develop "clean energy”
sources–they continue to pull out of renewable research, even their own
previous investments in renewable energy.
4. Soft Drinks
Soft drink production uses an enormous amount of water, and leaves
behind tons of waste. Coca-Cola knows this. Its new "going-green”
features stylish green cans and highlights the company’s water
conservation efforts. Coca Cola has partnered with WWF to preserve seven of the world’s major
rivers. It is also helping conservation projects in water-stressed areas
throughout the world. Oddly, Coca Cola fails to mention is how these
sensitive water sources became stressed in the first place. Hint: it
rhymes with "joke.”
It takes about 2.5 liters of water to produce
just one liter of product at Coke’s bottling plants. Coca-Cola
sells 1.5 billion beverages a day in over 200 countries. In 2006,
Coca-Cola and its bottlers used 80 billion gallons (290 billion liters)
of water to produce beverages — equivalent to one-fifth of the daily
water usage of the U.S. Approximately 40% of that went into producing
their popular drinks like Coke, Sprite and Fanta, while the other 60%
was consumed by the firm’s supply chain and the production of
ingredients, including the water-intensive process of growing sugar and
corn for corn syrup.
We haven’t begun to mention the ungodly amounts of plastic
waste the company’s plastic bottles produce. Try harder, Coke.
3. Bottled Water
More than 9 billion
gallons of water made it into little plastic bottles in 2007,
dousing providers with almost $12 billion in revenues. Industry giants
like Nestlé
and Fiji,
are lining up for a fresh coat of green to stay in the eco-minded
dollar game. Nestlé’s repeated
claims that "bottled water is the most environmentally responsible
consumer product in the world” have garnered complaints filed under the
Canadian Code of Advertising Standards by the Friends of the Earth
Canada, the Polaris Institute and Ecojustice.
FIJI water, the most-imported
brand in America, deserves a Shady Water Company award. For one,
the island of Fiji’s military junta protects the brand at the expense of
Fijian citizens. Most people in Fiji don’t have safe drinking water,
thanks to FIJI’s habit of exporting it. Typhoid outbreaks are common on
the island. The company uses plastic made in Chinese diesel-powered
plants to produce its thick rectangular bottles.
Yet Americans–including celebrities and Barack Obama–continue to
guzzle the stuff, thanks in part to pretty packaging and a $5 million
"Fiji Green” marketing campaign.
Um, FIJI and Nestle? Your plastic
is showing.
2. Clothes
Image: VisitSweden/Flickr
We could write a book about greenwashing in the clothing industry,
but we’ll stick with three prominent examples:
1. Back in 2002, Cargill, the world’s biggest producer of corn, announced a
revolutionary new fleece material made from corn sugar, not the
traditional petroleum. The catch: Cargill, which produces genetically
modified corn, makes the fleece out of its own frankenfood crops. No
wonder it touted the new fleece as a "green” alternative—it had money
written all over it. Organic clothing retailer Patagonia violently
pulled out of a partnership with Cargill after finding out about its
affinity with woven mutant corn.
2. In an unrelated clothing coup last year, the FTC charged bamboo
clothing manufacturers with making false green claims. The manufacturers
advertised their rayon clothing as "bamboo fiber” clothing (rayon
consists of fibers processed with toxic carbon disulfide. It is bamboo
fiber’s drug-addled step-cousin). They also made suspicious claims about
manufacturing their clothing "using an environmentally friendly process
that retains the natural antimicrobial properties of the bamboo plant
and (being) biodegradable,” according to the FTC.
3. Also in 2009, Banana Republic launched an "It’s Easy Being Green”
promotion that requires using their reusable bag to get 10 percent off
your purchases. Reusable shopping bags are green, yes? Not always so,
and especially not when Banana Republic is manufacturing thousands of
bags made from conventional cotton that takes tons of
pesticides to produce. BR also required consumers to buy a new bag
to be part of the promotion, denying smart eco-minded shoppers who brought
their own.
1. Coal
The term "clean coal”
is more of a collective guilt assuager than an environmental fact. Coal
is not sustainable. The burning of coal emits millions of tons of
carbon dioxide into the atmosphere every year. Yet it’s abundant, the
infrastructure is there, and energy companies continue to profit off
it, painting pastoral scenes on their smokestacks for good measure.
Fact is, there’s nothing clean or "new” about coal. Continuing to
promote coal as a clean energy source is contemptible when you compare
it with wind, solar, water, and hydrogen power methods. Coal needs to be
put out pasture–maybe one of those sunny pastures featured in GM’s greenwashed SUV ads.
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