REGULAR
SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF GREENWASHING
This time around, Max Adam, Sales & Marketing Director at RP Adam, discusses the meaning of the term ’greenwashing’, and explains how cleaning companies can often be misleading buyers by making unfounded ‘green’ claims.
Over the last 10 years or so, the professional cleaning arena has been focused on chemical concentrates and dosing systems whilst the domestic consumer market has been obsessed with designer fragrances. Today, in both sectors, attention is increasingly focusing on eco-labelled products and the so called benefits these types of products may bring to the consumer and business.
Some cleaning products in the retail world have been promoted using terms such as ‘non-toxic’ and ‘earth- friendly’ by companies attempting to tailor their products and packaging to consumer demand for chemical cleaning products that are supposedly ‘healthier’ for people and the environment – are we beginning to paint a picture?
Some chemical providers in the professional arena believe that having some kind of eco-label certification and a prominent eco-label seal printed on their cleaning products will set them apart from competitors and win over professional buyers who need to
28 | Tomorrow’s Cleaning December 2015
decide which cleaning chemicals to buy for their company’s use.
We now come to the subject of ‘Greenwashing’, so what is it?
The definition given by US-based TerraChoice is: “Green-wash – verb: the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.”
Typically, this refers to labelling or marketing products with ‘green claims’ and details the Seven Sins of Eco-Labelling:
1. The Sin of the Hidden Trade-off 2. The Sin of No Proof 3. The Sin of Vagueness 4. The Sin of Worshiping False Labels 5. The Sin of Irrelevance 6. The Sin of the Lesser of Two Evils 7. The Sin of Fibbing
Being aware of these ‘sins’ can help the purchasing manager decipher cleaning product claims better and help to pinpoint companies
and products that are guilty of ‘greenwashing’. TerraChoice’s research showed that the most common greenwashing sin, at 77.4%, is Vagueness and the most common terms associated with the Sin of Vagueness are: eco-friendly, environmentally friendly, earth-friendly, and environmentally safe.
A recent article in the Independent outlined the findings of the consumer group ‘Which?’ who conducted an investigation into claims of greenwashing by UK retail companies. While all the products stated did some good for the planet, almost half of them made claims that seemed not to be justified.
Environmental claims MUST convey meaningful benefits and should be fair. In the professional cleaning product sector, where some products are packaged in a way that suggests they are ‘greener’, there can often be an implied favourable comparison with other competitor products that do not present themselves in such a way – which is not fair.
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