Six Sins of Greenwashing

The first idea that came to my head after reading this article is why are there so few reliable, sustainable companies. Well actually according to the study, less than 1% of products are actually reliable and sustainable. This is 2008, why are companies still thinking like only have to do something if another company does it? I feel like this is their mindset: Oh I need to make a claim for the environment in my product so that I can stay competitive. Stop being REACTIVE and start being PROACTIVE! Didn't your momma tell you any different?

With so many fibbers and sinners out there making false claims about the environmental safety of their products, what companies will actually go the extra mile to make REAL claims? Similar to coin debasing in the Roman and Medieval times the bad and misleading product claims are pushing all the good and genuine product claims out of circulation. How are we consumers supposed to react to this examination by TerraChoice?

Have I been walking around the grocery store like a chicken with its head cut off, buying green toilet paper, green detergent, and the like? I do not feel mislead or betrayed, however, I realize the need to be more vigilant when buying such products from now on.

<---I pay more for this toilet paper... it's only made of 20% post consumer recycled content!

One thing I remarked while reading this that I thought of before was the Sin of Vagueness. I thought about this before when eating at McDonald's. Their burgers are 100% beef and 100% natural.. does that mean that they just throw the whole beef in the blender and make burgers out of that. Haha! sorry it's a little gross but that's the image I got into my head. aaaaaaaawhat is 100% beef?!? ----->

To make a few closing remarks, the box on multi-attribute vs single-attribute claims struck
me: Do companies sit around the board room trying to come up with one environmental attribute to add selling points to their products? Do they think that doing one thing is enough? I feel like being environmentally friendly is more than DOING THE BARE MINIMUM! My last point is that environmentally friendly doesn't only mean the product itself, it's the whole life cycle of the product: so there you go organic food buyer, how do you think your food is delivered: 18-wheeler trucks..