Don’t Get Greenwashed: A Quick Primer on Environmental Claims Validation
Consumers are demanding more environmentally responsible products and so industries and advertisers are putting more environmental claims on packaging. But are they true? “One hundred percent pure spring water from the mountains of Canada,” sounds pretty good, but “pure” according to whom?
The phenomenon of placing environmental claims on products that aren’t necessarily true, verified or meaningful is commonly referred to as “greenwashing” Merriam-Webster lists the definition as ‘expressions of environmentalist concerns especially as a cover for products, policies, or activities’. Consumers think they’re getting an environmentally responsible product, but are they?
In January 2009, Underwriters Laboratories, a world leader in product safety testing, launched UL Environment Inc. to provide independent, third-party validation of a manufacturer’s environmental claims on products. UL Environment’s Environmental Claims Validated Mark is used with products to indicate that their environmental claims have been validated. With UL Environment, you can rest assured that the claims have been tested and validated.
Here are a few tips consumers can use to avoid being greenwashed:
- Read the label. Look for verifiable words, not general ones such as “natural,” “real” or “environmentally friendly.” Watch for over-descriptive language that romances rather than relates facts. And any product that lists “poison, “caution,” “danger” or “warning” on the label is probably not good for you or the environment.
- Buy local. Shopping your local farmer’s market not only supports the community, but it puts you in direct contact with the sellers and there is a higher likelihood that you can verify the environmental claims made about foods.
- Don’t get sold by one environmental claim. A product that is energy efficient but also highly toxic to the environment is not the most environmentally responsible choice.
- Avoid over-packaging. Too much packaging is not environmentally friendly and can be used to imply that products may have attributes they don’t actually possess.
- Be smart. It’s great that a product is listed as CFC free. But when you learn that CFC’s were banned altogether more than 20 years ago, you realize it’s a deceptive claim. Also watch for other obvious contradictory claims such as “organic cigarettes” and “eco-friendly pesticide.”
- Third-party validation. Look for independent validation from a trusted source such as UL Environment.