Green Options

Earth Day brings out the best (or worst) examples of greenwashing.

I simply ignored most of the PR pitches I got in the last couple of weeks, but one stood out to me as an absolutely ridiculous spin on a product.

I’m going to take a chance and give it more publicity than it’s worth. Here’s the pitch I got:

“Monopoly®: Planet Earth Edition gives fans the chance to buy, sell and trade the earth’s most natural resources, landscapes, and animals Monopoly® style.”

Earlier this month, one of Peru’s major newspapers reported that Disney might open a park about an hour south of Lima on Peru’s coast. Would a Disney theme park be good or bad for Peru?

That’s the question that is now on many peoples’ minds. Comment threads on popular Peruvian and expatriate websites show a diversity of opinions. Some people think a Disney theme park would be great for providing jobs in a country that needs them, while others think it would amount to exploitation.

A new report claims that the increasing number of ‘all-natural’ and ‘organic’ products on the market may be guilty of “the seven sins of greenwashing”.

TerraChoice Environmental Marketing released its report The Seven Sins of Greenwashing today. The report defines greenwashing as “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.”

I’m a believer in voting with our dollars to send companies a message about what we, as consumers, want and that message is ringing through loud and clear. Consumer demand guides retail decisions - plain and simple.  With organic beauty brands popping up at what seems to be lightning fast speeds these days, its evident consumers are speaking and companies are listening.  It’s undoubtedly exciting there are more organic options popping up on the scene at a steady pace, but it can also be very confusing and overwhelming for consumers to distinguish a truly organic brand from one that isn’t when labels and price points can be similar.

It’s all about ingredients.  But how can we decide when we can’t locate the ingredients and when we finally do, are they really organic? 

McDonald’s, the States’ largest purchaser of potatoes, is taking preliminary steps to go pesticide-free, Reuters reports.  Investor groups had been pushing for the move, and now McDonald’s looks like it’s bending.

It will now take steps to reduce pesticide use in potato production for its supply.

Our U.S. potato suppliers are already working with their growers to advance sustainable pesticide practices, such as reductions and alternative methods.

And because it accounts for a huge chunk of U.S. spud use, I suppose it’s good that they’re leaning toward organic. But this isn’t some charitable thing, though they’re gonna spin it that way (of course).

Today, we are at an important crossroads in our industry. Acceptance of green products and lifestyles is on the rise. The more we can do to help gain the trust of the consumer the more likely they are to embrace products that help make a difference. This is not only good for business; it is good for the environment. And after all is said and done, that is what matters most.

There is a lot humankind can – and must – do to reduce its impact on the environment, but we cannot eliminate our impact entirely. The very act of breathing produces greenhouse gas. It is no more possible to come up with a 100% green product than it is to live a 100% green lifestyle. At the end of the day, it is all about compromise, sacrifice and trade-offs. This is a concept with which any successful ecopreneurist must come [...]

We get a lot of press releases from companies big and small touting their green initiatives.   I usually dismiss the ones from major corporations like Disney and Barbie as greenwashing, but I still pass them on to our writers.  After much prodding and persuading from my online friends, I usually take up the issue myself, as I just can’t help myself.  Disney….it’s your turn.

Disney has just issued the company’s first ever comprehensive corporate responsibility (CR) report.  For a company that was founded in the 1920s and is the largest media and entertainment corporation in the world, this report is a long time overdue!

The long term environmental goals outlined in the report are:

Zero waste

Zero net direct greenhouse gas emissions from fuels

Reduce indirect greenhouse gas emissions from electricity consumption

Net positive impact on ecosystems

Minimize water use

Minimize product footprint

Inform, empower and activate positive action for the environment

By Contributing Writer Melissa Chungfat | Part of Green Printer’s ‘Design Goes Green’ dispatch.

Thanks to blogs, websites, Facebook, and the ever-growing list of social media tools, people have the ability and power to educate themselves about anything they please. It is harder for companies to get away with lies about their products and misleading messages. People can easily look up “greenwashing” or “what is an organic product?” in a search engine and in a matter of seconds, they have a list of resources that cuts through the PR.

So how can companies who are taking sincere environmental initiatives market themselves credibly?

Generally speaking, social entrepreneurs are not involved with greenwashing (at least not blatantly or intentionally). However, being an ecopreneurist does not automatically give you immunity from scrutiny. The fact that so many companies have jumped on to the green bandwagon has created an environment of skepticism among potential customers that any company claiming to be green must overcome.

When I tell people about my business, they often ask if I worry about competing with big all-natural beauty brands like Arbonne. They wonder how my natural products compare to the ones offered by this in-home party darling. I, of course, have had no idea how to answer their questions because I couldn’t find Arbonne’s ingredient lists for any of their products.

This past weekend I co-hosted a booth at the local Mind Body Life Expo, a big homeopathic love fest of salt rocks, acupuncturists, healing stones, beauty products, and even motivational speakers. In between the guy who was reading auras to diagnose allergies and the latest and greatest in anti-aging smoothies was the Arbonne booth. I took advantage of this rare opportunity to ask an Arbonne rep about the contents of their “pure and safe” skin care. She replied that they did not have the information about their natural products, but I was more than welcome to find complete ingredient information on the Arbonne website.

Rather than rant about the minutes of my life I wasted trying to find even one list of ingredients anywhere on the website, I will simply tell you that they do not exist. I knew I could not be the only one determined to know what was in the stuff, so I did a little web-sleuthing. Thanks to brave blogger Winking Brunette, I can now provide you with the dirty little secrets that apparently we’re supposed to be able to get via Arbonne consultants (let me repeat, I asked one and she quickly referred me to the website). Let’s take a look, shall we?