Are we being greenwashed?

I can imagine the goings on at some corporate strategy meetings these days. “Let’s go green. Everybody else is doing it!” someone says. The others nod in assent. You’d think the conversation would then turn to real changes and a discussion on environmental responsibility.

Frankly, I don’t think that’s the case. More often than not, I’ll bet it becomes a spin session. Participants carefully dissect elements of the company and its products, recording each and every thing that could remotely be considered green. A public relations campaign commences and, voilá! the business is now green. Woo hoo!

It’s impossible for most consumers to separate real eco-friendly efforts from puffery. And, unfortunately, the companies committed to real change pay the price. The impact of their sometimes costly environmental efforts gets diluted and lost in the clutter.

I recently stumbled across a Web site that’s evaluating the sincerity of green claims. The Greenwashing Index asks visitors to submit ads with environmental claims and then rate them based on accuracy.

It’s a start. If nothing else, it helps demonstrate that green claims aren’t always in sync with complex corporate realities.

I’ll be exploring the greenwashing phenomenon in an upcoming issue of Garden Center Magazine. I’d like to get your thoughts on this issue. Do you take green claims with a grain of salt? Do you think they’re mostly sincere? Leave a comment or send me an e-mail.

-- Sarah

Comments

[SM on behalf of Todd Wolfe]

Have you noticed that every other product on the market is now "organic"?

From table linens, to lawn products....everyone has an organic product.

To answer your question....its a major spin session. But there is a bit of truth in many of these claims.

For example, many chemical lawn care companies have been practicing as "green a routine" as possible for well over 10 years. The problem is that truly organic products often times don't last as long and are more expensive than their synthetic cousins. (which the ordinary person doesn't want to pay for) Therefore, the industry cannot move faster into a
more sustainable approach until organic products become cost effective
with similar efficacy.

After building, owning, and operating several of these companies, we were preaching things like reduced watering, less fertilizer inputs, and integrated pest management long before the millions of others got on the band wagon. And often, that is the first industry pointed at when watering restrictions or environmental groups decide they need to intervene.

Some products are marketed and educated with deception like pyrethrins being organic because the active ingredient was derived from a flower when it is clearly not an organic pesticide. However, it does have much less toxicity than previous pesticides and very effective in its mode of activity in the environment.

There are currently organic bio-stimulants that claim to reduce watering needs by as much as 40%. Why doesn't anyone use them you ask?

Because growers, operators, and the like don't want to adjust their programs on something that may or may not work to produce larger yields. So they carry on with the status quo because they are too busy trying to cover payroll taxes, insurance, truck repair and fuel costs, finding good help, etc.. Combine all that with the fact that initiating an organic program is more expensive to apply and Voila......."NO THANKS...I WILL STICK TO WHAT I AM DOING"

So it is much easier to spin your existing services and products than to actually change the way things are done. That is what happens. So until
organic, sustainable approaches are effective, both in cost and results, I am afraid nothing will change.

Todd Wolfe
Green Earth Solutions, Inc.

[SM on behalf of Ed Parachini]

Yes, if you have been in a Wal-Mart. They are all hype.

A real gardencenter is by it's very nature greener than most other stores.
It's like the term organic tomato's, all tomato's are organic. The use of pesticide doesn't change the fact that a plant is an organic simply because there are carbon atoms involved. All other definations are nothing but marketing hype.

Ed Parachini

[Lisa Napolitano]

Having operated an organic nursery and not using chemicals in or around my home for over 20 years (due to health concerns), I have found that "Organic/Sustainable" horticulture is not necessarily more expensive. Actually I have found it to be cheaper on the whole. It is however different and people do not like to change. Coorporations and marketing departments just want a buzz word that they can exploit to sell their products and will jump on a bandwagon. When businesses realize that "sustainable" saves them overhead costs... less fertilizer, less interventions and lower energy costs...things might begin to change...maybe.