GREENWASH
Edited version published:
Frankie #29
(May/June 2009)
Growing up, I was one of those children who
told you—often in a shrill, whiney manner—to turn off the
taps, use both sides of the paper and switch off the lights. Now in my
adult years, those early signs of hyper green-consciousness have seen
me transform into a supermarket sweeper of the most nauseating kind.
Slap your green credentials on a product, and I’ll buy it. Give
me logos of hands holding globes, and images of green leaves floating
in the wind, and you’ve won me over. It’s not even a question
of cash. If your product says it’s more eco-friendly than its neighbour,
I’ll even pay more for it, hands down. I’m just that kind
of guy.
Nowadays, it seems I’m not alone. Looking out for environmentally-friendly
products isn’t just a fringe past-time of the eco-paranoid and
dreadlocked anymore, but a mainstream consumer movement in its own right. “Consumers
want to do the right thing,” says Nick Ray, the project co-ordinator
of the annual Ethical Consumer Guide. “They’re grasping the
concept that each of their purchases makes a difference. So for companies,
there’s huge mileage to come out of that.”
Huge mileage
indeed. At last count, the so-called green industry in Australia—green
initiatives, products and marketing combined—was estimated to have
a combined worth of $12 billion (AUD). Internationally, that same industry
is estimated to churn out a massive $500 billion (USD) a year. For corporations
and manufacturers, there’s a lot of money to be made by greening
up their products. At first, this would seem like an excellent thing:
mainstreaming green values into the daily consumer grind.
However, Elise
Davidson from Choice, Australia’s largest consumer organisation,
also sees massive problems in all this. Since starting a Green Watch
campaign last year, Choice has found an increasing proliferation of green
claims on everyday supermarket products, which are misleading, untrue
or can’t actually be verified. “Consumers are confused about
what is actually green, and what is actually spin,” she says.
“It’s
very much a minefield,” Nick Ray adds. “Adjectives are thrown
in like ‘eco’, ‘natural’ or ‘forest-friendly’,
but they’re really broad terms.” In researching for his supermarket
guide, Nick encountered one toilet paper manufacturer who claimed their
product was sourced from a “certified environmentally-managed company” with
an “environmentally, socially and economically responsible track
record”. That turned out to be a lie: the Indonesian company had
a shocking track record which had even been proved in an audit. When
confronted, they claimed that the audit itself was “certification”.
Sometimes, it seems deciphering green branding requires a degree in semiotics
and semantics.
These antics are far more common than you think. The practice
of improperly boosting a product’s green-cred has now become so
rife, it has a commonly accepted name: greenwash. In fact, the US environmental
marketing firm TerraChoice found that in the States alone, nearly 100%
of the 1018 consumer products they randomly surveyed were guilty of greenwashing.
“Consumers
need to be able to differentiate between a product doing genuinely good
things, to a product they’ve just put a stamp on,” Elise
says. Here are just some ways to do that.
Do Your Reading
Although weekly
supermarket runs are supposed to be quick and painless, it pays to spend
time reading up on definitions commonly used in green packaging.
For
instance, when it comes to buying plastic garbage bags, many will claim
to be “degradable”. However, “degradable” simply
means the bag is broken down into smaller plastic particles that still
contaminates landfill, and never gets absorbed into nature. Nick Ray
says what consumers should be looking for are goods where both packaging
and product are “biodegradable”. Read up on what you need
to be looking for. It
also pays have a handy supermarket guide—such
as the Ethical Consumer Guide or Choice—on hand to outline what
major brands to buy. Let someone else do the hard work for you.
Labels
and Logos
No matter how many shades of green are used on packaging, most
green logos are useless unless they’re official and certified.
In Australia, there are only a select handful of logos you can trust
when it comes to issues like fair trade, organic, free-range and cruelty-free.
(Both Choice website and the Ethical Consumer Guide lists these logos
on their websites.) If the product doesn’t carry a certified logo,
you’re probably being greenwashed. “For instance, anyone
can label anything ‘organic’,” Nick says, “but
it’s ‘certified organic’ you’re really looking
for.”
Know
the Main Traps
After doing their major greenwash survey, TerraChoice
listed the major techniques companies employed to greenwash their
products: disguising hidden trade-offs, not providing proof, vagueness,
irrelevance, fibbing, and claiming a product was green, when the product
was inherently harmful to the environment anyway, such as cigarettes.
One example of a hidden trade-off are egg manufacturers that recycle
chicken waste, but still use brutally cruel battery farms. Examples of
irrelevance are spray cans labelled “CFC-free”, even though
no CFC products are allowed to be made or imported into Australia anyway.
Look for Specific and Precise Claims
One way of ensuring a company measures
up to their green claims is to ensure their packaging lists comprehensive
and thorough details about their practices. Make sure their claims are
evidence-based, and look for accessible company contact details, where
you can enquire about their green claims further. If it looks like a
company’s trying to hide something, they probably are.
Complain
One of the most important things to do as
a consumer is to complain. Even though the Australian Competition and
Consumer Commission (ACCC) enforces the Trade Practices Act with dodgy
manufacturers, it’s
up to consumers to bring those shonky products to the ACCC’s attention
in the first place. No one holds companies to account unless consumers
intervene. Complaints can be lodged with the ACCC directly, or Choice—who
have a good track record of forcing companies to remove their products,
or review their marketing and packaging—can do it for you.
Something
is Better Than Nothing
After all this, Nick Ray says there is a danger
for consumers to become overly cynical or complacent about green products.
However, he encourages people not to be overwhelmed or paralysed by greenwashing. “Start
with what you can,” he says. “Any choice better than the
standard one is a better buy. If there’s something better than
caged eggs, go for that. If it can be free-range, even better. If it
can be accredited, even better. It doesn’t take much to find out
what is the best buy. Once you find it out, stick to it.”
Share
the Knowledge
Once you differentiate between the good and the bad green
products, share the information with friends, families and relatives,
especially if you know they’re shopping for large families.
RESOURCES
ACCC /
Choice / Eco-Shout /
Ethical Consumer Guide / Greenwash / Terrachoice
BACK TO SELECTED WORKS
INDEX