Word Nerd: Greenwashing

Since Earth Day is right around the corner, I thought it may be a good time to cover one of the most annoying "green" trends running rampant out there: Greenwashing.

Greenwashing comes from the more familiar term "whitewashing", which is defined in Merriam-Webster's dictionary as:
a. to gloss over or cover up
b. to exonerate by means of a perfunctory investigation or through bias presentation of data

In Greenwashing, companies try to make their products look eco-friendly when they are really not, or play up one way in which they ARE eco-friendlier to get you to buy it, while skillfully hiding all the ways in which they actually muck up the earth and kick Mother Nature in the teeth.

An example of this may be when a household cleaner touts that their new packaging now uses 33% less plastic! Whoo-hoo! While casually omitting any nods to the fact that the chemicals IN their product are toxic, carcinogenic, loaded with artificial fragrances, and generally all-around crappy for you and the earth.

I can think of about one billion other examples of this that I've come across since really getting neck-deep in this whole greeny makeover. Just as we would with food, we have to learn to read labels, and know what to look for. It's a chore. I'm glad that the Good Guide and Skin Deep (see Green Inspiration Links on the right) can help me with some of the research. But other times, I just have to dive into the interwebs and see what I can find.

Of course, one person's Totally Awesome LifeChanging EcoProduct of the Century is another person's greenwashed garbage.  Take a look at the (quite polite and reasonable) Yay! and Nay! comments about this cool-looking water bottle on ReNest. They bring up a good question about how much we know/care about how bamboo is harvested and processed. Better than plastic? Probably. Better than a re-used glass bottle with a sock around it? Maybe not.

So, to sum up, Greenwashing is out there. Everywhere. The website GreenwashingIndex.com  has some tips about how to spot Greenwashing. And Greenwashing.net has a list of who they consider the 10 Worst Offenders of corporate Greenwashing. You can read another article about the FTC's response (late as it may be) here.

I have scheduled a blog Book Review of the book "Garbage Land" to share with you soon, but one way in which Greenwashing and my main take-away from Garbage Land is the very simple yet oh-so-difficult concept of BUYING LESS STUFF. The fewer things I buy, the less likely I am to succumb to Fakey-McFakerson eco claims or be wooed by the trumpets of "Green!" "Eco!" "Organic!" "Sustainable!".

Which, of course, is a total buzz-kill on a day that I received a very very VERY tempting email reminder from JCrew that they are having an extra 30% off Sale Items sale this weekend. And I have a Blick Art Supply coupon burning a hole in my wallet. At least there's very little Greenwashing going on with high-end casual wear or art stores. I know what I'm getting when I shop there, and it probably ain't green. Sigh.