Green Label OR Green Fable?
What does it mean to go green? Most people would tell you that “going green” means doing “stuff” that helps “save” the environment. While this definition certainly doesn’t qualify for a placement on Wikipedia, it pretty much sums up the term in a vague, 3rd grader kind of way…and for those of you who associate “going green” with the recently dismissed Prop 19, please give yourself a pat on the back if you’re attention span allows you to finish reading this post!
The fact of the matter is, the green culture here in the US has recruited an increasing number of followers over the years, opening the door for a multitude of green businesses. One of the most fundamental concepts of economics is Supply and Demand; where demand refers to how much (quantity) of a product or service is desired by buyers. As the demand for green alternatives increases, so does the number of green products and services.
I ran two searches using the Google Timeline web application for the exact keyword match of “going green” and “green products”. Google Timeline organizes search results chronologically, and allows users to view news and other data sources on a browsable, graphical timeline. Available data sources include recent and historical news, scanned newspapers and magazines, blog posts, sports scores, and information about various types of media, like music albums and movies.
As you can clearly see, those economics gurus were right on the money with their supply and demand laws. As the graphs illustrate, when searches for “going green” increased (demand), so did the searches for “green products” (supply).
Google Timeline - "Going Green"
Google Timeline - "Green Products"
Here’s another graph from the Cleantech Group that adds further insight into the growth of “green”
Before researching this topic, I (like most of you reading this) thought, “what could possibly be bad about the growth of green technology?” How could there be anything negative about wanting to save the environment through greener design, production, and disposal…Well my friends, for every Ying there is a Yang, and unfortunately there are some manipulative and misleading greenwashers out there who take advantage of those who are going green to save the planet.
“Greenwashing” you say? (think whitewashing…but…green) is a term describing the deceptive use of green PR or green marketing in order to promote a misleading perception that a company’s policies or products/services are environmentally friendly. sinsofgreenwashing.org is run by an environmental marketing and consulting firm out of Canada and are the authors of the “Sins of Greenwashing” studies, aimed to oust those companies who falsely claim to be environmentally friendly. Some examples of greenwashing include marketing “lead free TV’s” and “energy efficient computers”. Many of you have heard that the average CRT TV (old tube televisions) contain between 3-6 lbs of lead, which is toxic and harmful to the environment. When LCD TV’s came onto the market, many manufacturers advertised these new flat screens as being better for the environment because they don’t contain any lead…but the companies failed to mention that instead of lead, they contain mercury, which is just as toxic if not more harmful than lead. Similarly, computer manufacturers boasted that their new “energy efficient” computers were better for the environment because of the reduced amount of energy needed to run the machines…but research shows that more than 80% of the energy consumption of the lifecycle of a computer occurs during production, and only 20% of the energy is used during actual consumer use.
In the 24 “big box” stores that sinsofgreenwashing.org visited in both 2009 and 2010 (same brand, same location, same size), the number of “greener” products (products claiming to be green) increased by 73%. In this year’s study they found that over 95% of “greener” products commit one or more of the seven “Sins of Greenwashing”
Source: sinsofgreenwashing.org
There is evidence however, that the number of greenwashing incidents is improving as pressure from various groups increases, and incidents of greenwashing become openly available and visible to the public.
So what’s the takeaway here? Don’t judge a product by its packaging. Do your research and make sure that the products/services you are buying are as green as they claim to be.