Greenwashing and the FTC

Last October, the Federal Trade Commission released new guidelines on greenwashing.

According to Sourcewatch.org, greenwashing is the unjustified appropriation of environmental virtue by a company, an industry, a government, a politician or even a non-government organization to create a pro-environmental image, sell a product or a policy, or to try and rehabilitate their standing with the public and decision makers after being embroiled in controversy.

It seems like the FTC wants companies to completely ditch the sweeping claims of "green" or "eco-friendly".  Instead the FTC wants companies to be very specific and substantiate their statements.

The guidelines created in 1992 were last revised 12 years ago.

The revised Guides caution marketers not to make blanket, general claims that a product is “environmentally friendly” or “eco-friendly” because the FTC’s consumer perception study confirms that such claims are likely to suggest that the product has specific and far-reaching environmental benefits. Very few products, if any, have all the attributes consumers seem to perceive from such claims, making these claims nearly impossible to substantiate.

However, it appears that there will be a steep learning curve because the public is still very uninformed on green concepts and companies may still continue to exploit old rules (perhaps even due to ignorance or misunderstanding).

The problem of Green washing appears to be significantly grave.  

TerraChoice, an environmental marketing company, conducted a study which found that almost all of the environmental claims made for consumer products are false or misleading.