Green peace defines greenwashing as "the cynical use of environmental themes to whitewash corporate misbehaviour." The main idea is to appeal to the public by making thier products seem environmentally friendly, throw environmental work out of proportion, or even use environmental work or support to hid bad things they do.
Car companies filming commercials in forests, oil companies advertising the money they have invested in wind power, green logos with lots of leafs are on countless new products, and companies brag about the recycled paper used to print off a plastic toy's instructions. These are all examples of greenwashing, and they are all problems. They make it incredibly difficult to find businesses genuinely interested and dedicated to helping the environment.
1. The Sin of Hidden Trade off- Claims to be green in one sense but hides significant impacts. (The percent of products committing sin (USA) is 73%)
2. The Sin of No Proof- No reputable third-party verification of claims (59%)
3. The Sin of Vagueness- Sayings like "all-natural" and "environmentally friendly"... Arsenic is all natural! (56%)
4. The Sin of Worshiping False Labels- Companies make their own official looking seals and award them to their products (24%)
5. The Sin of Irrelevance- Ex. saying your product is "CFC Free" when CFCs are banned by law (8%)
6. The Sin of Lesser of Two Evils- Claim is true but does not recognize overall harm done by product (4%)
7. The Sin of Fibbing- Flat out lying (0%)
All of these contribute to confuse and manipulate consumers.
When consumers do not know who to trust they often are not able to support the few companies that are actually clean. Greenwashing is also often used as propaganda to make people buy into their products and trust them. This gives these deceptive businesses more power and also incentive to deceive all the more. By buying these products people are actually supporting deforestation and by trusting them they are commending the companies for the means at which they produce their product. A company may save ducklings from oil spills but at the same time they as spending millions to lobby in the government for less fracking regulations.
Greenpeace created stopgreenwashing.org to educate people which companies are committing eco-crimes or throwing their environmental initiatives out of proportion so that they may make educated decisions and fight against these corporations.
According to Triple Pundit (a new-media business organization which focuses on the triple bottom-line) 'smart' consumers are avoiding greenwashed products . Apparently mothers in the states are beginning to use Facebook and are reading blogs to find out which greenwashed products to avoid. The Stop Greenwashing website is another powerful tool to enable people to make educated and right choices.
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