The biggest ‘green’ marketing scams/These products don’t help the enviroment and may not work at all. In greenwashing, as in life, there are seven sins. There's the sin of the hidden trade-off, for example, the sin of vagueness, and the sin of no proof. So says sins of greenwashing, which takes on companies that offer seemingly green benefits — often at a hefty price tag — with little results. As the green trend continues, companies in almost every industry vie for a piece of the green market, even the embattled General Motors has taken a chance on its own green product initiative. But as the field of green products grows, so does the number of impostors. The following is a list of some of the most perplexing green products out there-and an assessment of just how scammy they might be:
Clorox "Green Works" products Green Works launched a little more than a year ago, under the pretense of bringing eco-friendly home-cleaning goods, such as all-surface and window cleaners, to the mass market. Several of these products, however, contain corn-based ethanol, which the environmental community has targeted for being neither cost effective nor eco-friendly. Many items in the Green Works line also include sodium lauryl sulfate-which the company describes as a "coconut-based cleaning agent." That may be true, but, coconut or not, SLS has long been criticized by the scientific community for its not-so-natural effects; the American College of Toxicology described SLS as a known skin irritant in a report published more than 20 years ago.
Marketing claims are regulated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which has issued voluntary guidance on environmental advertising and marketing practices. While the FTC is the rule-maker on this subject, TerraChoice’s “Six Sins of Greenwashing” can be helpful for contractors developing marketing materials. ISSA can also provide helpful support.
Some examples that contractors may want to consider include:
Claim of improved occupant health and productivity. It is not enough to use anecdotal evidence (stories) or general evidence from the cleaning industry that supports your hypothesis. You must have specific scientific evidence to support your claim or it may be considered false or misleading.
Claims that products meet or exceed the requirements of Green Seal or similar third-party certifier. Unless products are officially “certified” or you have specific test data to prove that products “meet and exceed” an organization’s requirements, you may be heading for trouble. And be aware that it is not enough to simply take your supplier’s word for it. If you are making the claim, you have to be able to substantiate it, so ask your suppliers for the documentation.
A claim of using “only green products” can be made as long as you can document that you are in fact using only green products including chemicals, paper, equipment, liners, mops, carts, dusters, etc. If you use words such as “only,” “always,” “all,” “never,” etc., you have to mean it with no exceptions or the claim may be false or misleading, otherwise consider modifying your claim.
Be careful when using logos and mentioning organizations such as U.S. Green Building Council, Green Seal, Environmental Choice, etc. Make sure it is clear if just a single employee is a member, if the company is a corporate member, or if the company holds some specific certification from the organization, or if some or all of the products are certified, otherwise your claim could be misleading.
Make it clear when making green claims whether the claim refers to products being used; applies to the service being performed including products, training, procedures, communications and stewardship programs; or is for the company itself including buildings, internal operations, vehicles, etc.
Remember, it doesn’t matter if the problem was intentional or inadvertent. It’s preferable to get it right from the beginning. For more information or questions, don’t hesitate to visit or to contact us at Janitor’s World.
Earth Day in Brampton: With the help of RONA Home and Garden and their new ECO line, the Brampton Downtown Development Corporation (BDDC) is inviting the merchants and business owners in Downtown Brampton to clean their windows, making the downtown sparkle. On EARTH DAY, Wednesday, April 22, 2009 the BDDC and RONA are inviting the Downtown Street Front Business to come out and clean their windows in an environmentally friendlier way! As Earth Day quickly approaches members of the RONA team from both Brampton locations & the BDDC want to remind us all about cleaning green! RONA is supplying the downtown merchants and businesses with a bottle of ECO Glass & Surface Cleaner and a squeegee, for free! RONA has succeeded in creating a product that lessens our ecological footprint and works! This brand new line of eco friendly cleaners is gentle on consumers and the earth alike. So go green on Earth Day, while still keeping clean.
1 comment:
Following is a response posted by Ketchum on behalf of The Clorox Company:
On behalf of The Clorox Company, I would like to respond to Amy Tennery’s article titled “The Four Biggest Enviro-Scams,” in which she criticizes the Green Works brand. It is our belief that Ms. Tennery misinterpreted key product information about Green Works Natural Cleaners, and I would like to provide the following facts to put her conclusions into context.
First of all, the Green Works brand is committed to using the highest level of natural ingredients in each product. The majority of Green Works natural products are recognized by the EPA’s Design for Environment program for using safe chemistry, and we are working with the EPA to get the remainder of our products in the program.
Since our launch, the Green Works brand has been transparent in our labeling of ingredients, our definition of natural and the percentage of natural ingredients in our formulas (95+ percent). In fact, to the best of our knowledge, no other company making natural household cleaning products lists, on label, the percentage levels of natural ingredients in their natural products. In terms of transparency, the Green Works brand not only lists all our ingredients on labels and on our web site but we have broadly communicated our belief that natural products should:
o Be made from plant- and mineral-based ingredients
o Be made with biodegradable cleaning ingredients
o Not be tested on animals
Tennery is quick to dismiss the natural profile of an ingredient, implying that it’s more important to be environmentally sustainable. We believe both are important, which is why we are confident in the ingredient choices we have made for our formulas.
Corn-based ethanol – Tennery states that the environmental community has targeted corn-based ethanol for being “neither cost effective nor eco-friendly,” but these complaints are for using corn-based ethanol as a fuel source. This has nothing to do with how we use corn-based ethanol in Green Works products. From our standpoint, we would rather use a plant-based ethanol in our products than a similar petrochemical-based ingredient.
Sodium Lauryl Sulfate – Tennery states “many items in the Green Works line” contain SLS. Only Green Works Natural Dishwashing Liquid and Green Works Natural Dilutable Cleaner contain this ingredient. SLS can be an irritant at high concentration levels -- similar to other natural ingredients, such as citric acid (lemons) or acetic acid (vinegar). As an ingredient in our dishwashing liquid and our dilutable cleaner, SLS is present at low levels and is safe for the consumer.
We are actively continuing to evolve the Green Works brand – from the formulas (as natural options become more widely available), and to packaging (going towards 100% PCR).
Finally, Tennery comments about our “perplexing” relationship with Sierra Club. From our standpoint, it’s pretty straightforward. The Green Works brand wanted to contribute to environmental conservation by supporting one of the largest, grassroots organizations in the U.S. We are proud to continue our financial support of Sierra Club today.
The Green Works brand stands for powerful cleaning done naturally and we have stayed true to that promise. Our proposition is aimed at the mainstream consumer who is interested in natural products that clean, are affordable and easily accessible. We are achieving our goal to mainstream natural cleaning and are proud of our leadership position in the Natural Cleaning Category.
Sincerely,
Jessica Buttimer
Global Domain Leader, Green Works
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