Green with honesty

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By Karen Goldberg Goff

As the green wave of environmentally friendly products has swept the country, it's not just trendy anymore to say "natural," "organic" or "we care."

It's expected. It also is an exaggeration a lot of the time, says Scot Case, vice president of TerraChoice, a Philadelphia environmental marketing and consulting firm. After looking at 1,018 products - from toothpaste to caulk, shampoo to electronics - TerraChoice found that 99 percent made false claims, committing at least one of what Mr. Case calls the "six sins of greenwashing."

"Greenwashing is absolutely a problem," Mr. Case says. "It is particularly a challenge now because a lot of new companies are getting pressure to 'go green,' while at the same time a lot of new consumers are interested in going green. A lot of the time, you have the blind leading the blind."

Among the six sins:

mThe sin of the hidden trade-off. Mr. Case points out that many electronics make environmental claims but contain hazardous materials. Fifty-seven percent of the products TerraChoice tested committed this sin.

"This is when products focus attention on one area - such as saying paper is from recycled content - but they leave out the part about air pollution and chemicals," he says.

mThe sin of no proof, such as claiming to be organic but not having actual certification. Mr. Case found 454 products guilty of this.

mThe sin of vagueness, such as saying a product is "earth friendly."

"What does that even mean?" Mr. Case asks. There are products that claim to be all-natural, which means they can contain natural but hazardous compounds, such as arsenic and formaldehyde, he points out.

mThe sin of irrelevance, claiming to be free of something harmful. That's great, but that something usually was banned by the government decades ago.