Jyme chooses a new favorite word: Greenwash

I admit it. I have a new favorite word. I chose it carefully from all of the other newly minted and made-up words spun by marketers in the last couple of decades: Greenwash. I know the word greenwash has been around a while, but it took a few years of snarky repetition to replace D’oh! on my list.

And, like D’oh!, the word is full of merit.

What exactly is greenwashing? The term “greenwash” was born in the 1991 March/April issue of Mother Jones magazine according to Wikipedia. It is defined there as “the term is generally used when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being green (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), rather than spending resources on environmentally sound practices. This is often portrayed by changing the name or label of a product, to give the feeling of nature, for example putting an image of a forest on a bottle of harmful chemicals. Environmentalists often use greenwashing to describe the actions of energy companies, which are traditionally the largest polluters.”

I find this fascinating. Companies would lie to us to sell products to cash in on the current rage? No. Say it ain’t so.

Are you guilty of greenwashing just to cash in on the latest craze? Maybe you are and you don’t realize it. There are several ways to check yourself.

One of the most interesting takes on greenwashing comes from environmental marketing firm TerraChoice. Check out “The Six Sins of Greenwashing.” You can download a pdf and look at all of the sins yourself.

Here’s Sin 3, the Sin of Vagueness to give you a taste:

Garden insecticides promoted as “chemical-free.” In fact, nothing is free of chemicals. Water is a chemical. All plants, animals, and humans are made of chemicals as are all of our products. If the marketing claim doesn’t explain itself (“here’s what we mean by ‘eco’ …”), the claim is vague and meaningless. Similarly, watch for other popular vague green terms: non-toxic, all-natural, environmentally friendly, and earth-friendly.

-- Jyme

Comments

[Rose]

How does a consumer separate the wheat from the chaff? How do we, as communicators, help them?