Green Means Go

Look beyond the labels when deciding which products are truly sustainable

In the carpe-diem world of retailing, add to the list of items worth questioning those wearing a “green” label, and we don’t mean the color. Marketers have coopted the environmental sensibilities that are all the rage these days and in doing so, are preying on the good intentions of consumers willing to do their part to save the planet.

Marketers are those professionals who turned a black-and-red pair of Nike basketball shoes into the must-have sneaks of the 1980s, Air Jordans. Or who have convinced millions of Americans that $5 is not an unreasonable price to pay Starbucks for some frothy milk and coffee syrup. And now they have invaded the sustainability industry to a level that’s so pervasive the practice is called “greenwashing.”

“I think that greenwashing is like a lot of marketing: It’s designed to make you attracted to a product,” says Khristopher Dodson, communications and program manager for the Environmental Finance Center, located at the Syracuse Center of Excellence. “Looking for green items is so at the top of everyone’s purchasing agenda these days. Green has become a trend, in my opinion, for the better, and marketing is following that trend. Be a savvy consumer, look at marketing with a skeptical eye, and know what you are willing to trade off.”

By that latter point, Dodson means we live in a far from perfect, sustainable world, so you need to make the best choice for you, and for the environment. “Maybe you can’t find recycled paper for your printer, but you will recycle the paper you do use,” he says. “Maybe you can’t recycle a container but you can reuse it. Go back to the point of purchase and reuse the container.”

Another example would be packaging that claims to be compostable. “There are very few municipalities in the country that compost,” Dodson says. “Without a composting program set up and without public education, it makes no difference if an item can be composted, even for someone like me who has a backyard composting system. Many of these items require a good deal of heat, which would be found at a commercial composting system.”

But back to the main issue, which is how to spot greenwashing and what to do about it. “Part of the answer to ‘how do you know if a product is truly green?’ is looking for certification on the product,” explains Diane Brandli, sustainability and interior design consultant who works on large commercial projects. Among those are the Syracuse Center of Excellence, a dorm at SUNY Cortland and several local school projects. She is also LEED (Leadership in Energy and Envi ronmental

Design)-certified, meaning she passed an exam administered by the Green Building Certification Institute.

As an interior designer, Brandli chooses interior furnishings, finishes and construction materials that are sustainable. The term is best defined as a practice that sustains a given condition, such as economic growth or a human population, without destroying or depleting natural resources or polluting the environment. “We want to protect the environment, humans and the economy when we’re looking for products that are sustainable,” she says. Still, it’s not easy for the public to discern what is and what isn’t green or sustainable, which provides ample room for marketers to swoop in and confuse matters. One way to find out is to pay attention to who is applying the labels.

“There are reputable certifiers out there:

Energy Star, the Forest Stewardship Council, Water Sense,” says Brandli. Further, notes Dodson, “green means different things to different people. For me, maybe I’d rather buy a locally produced product that’s not sustainable than I would a product from overseas. That’s because transportation of the sustainable product is more harmful to the environment.”

While products wearing certified labels from those three outfits are legit, consumers need to pay attention to green labels that either mean nothing or are cleverly written attempts to deceive. “One of the perils of greenwashing is that there are so many consumers out there who are looking for particular products or services, and now that the environment as a purchasing choice is more important, the marketers are trying to capitalize on that,” says Dodson. “Consumers want to make the right decisions, but they aren’t always savvy enough to look beyond that first layer of marketing.

“Greenwashing resides in that first layer; that’s as far as a lot of people are willing to go. And without being able to strip away that first layer, folks don’t have the ability to make a proper decision,” Dodson adds.

Certainly one of the largest local examples of greenwashing sits along the southern end of Onondaga Lake. Really, now, how possible is it that a shopping mall that requires a vehicle to get to is truly green? Yet, Carousel Center signage likes to remind visitors of its green status.

Painting interior railings green and devoting 65 parking spaces to qualifying cars is hardly green.

And those signs former Mayor Matt Driscoll had installed in 2008 calling Syracuse The Emerald City for the city’s sustainability practices? Consider them in the same light you would a “post-consumer recycled content” label.

Confused?Wonder what you can do today to change tour corner of the world?See our top 10 action itembs on page 14.

“A company, maybe, is installing compact fluorescent light bulbs {CFLs}, and reducing their energy consumption at the same time,” Dodson says. “That’s a good thing for the environment. But sometimes the reason behind making the decision isn’t environmental, but it affects their bottom line. Or some companies will put a label on a product saying it has no harmful chemicals, but perhaps it never did.”

Such tricky labeling, and other misleading sustainability information, are subjects of a Seven Sins of Greenwashing list. “The list was developed by an organization called Terra Choice,” says Brandli, “which is pretty well-respected in the sustainable products community.” Those sins, below, and many other interesting consumer information can be found at www.sinsofgreenwashing.org.

• The Hidden Tradeoff.

A claim suggesting that a product is green based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues. Paper, for example, is not necessarily environmentally preferable just because it comes from a sustainably harvested forest. Other important environmental issues in the paper-making process, such as greenhouse gas emissions, or chlorine used in bleaching, may be equally important.

• No Proof.

An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by a reliable third-party certification. Common examples are facial tissues or toilet tissue products that claim various percentages of post-consumer recycled content without providing evidence.

• Vagueness.

A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. “Allnatural” is an example. Arsenic, uranium, mercury and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. All natural isn’t necessarily green.

• False Labels.

A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.

• Irrelevance.

An environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products. “CFC-free” is a common example, despite the fact that CFCs are banned by law.

• Lesser of Two Evils.

A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. Organic cigarettes could be an example of this, as might the fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle.

• Fibbing.

Environmental claims that are simply false. The most common examples were products falsely claiming to be Energy Star-certified or -registered.

Once you’ve waded through the misinformation to make wise consumer choices, making sustainable purchases becomes much easier, if only because manufacturers and marketers are doing a good job of keeping the subject in front of consumers. “Sustainable products are coming increasingly easy to find,” notes Dodson, “there are a bunch of websites and directories you can use to find them.”

At www.greenamerica.org, for example, you’ll find a listing of green items and green New Year’s resolutions, and you can sign up for the e-newsletter. Other publications offer e-newsletters as well, including Consumer Reports and Ecohome. Just remember to avoid the temptation to print the newsletter from your e-mail inbox.