Greenwashing Goes through the Wringer

Companies have had an open field when it comes to making assertions about how environmentally friendly their products are. Now the feds want a little more honesty in those claims.

By Emily Badger
Miller-McCune

Green Claims Likely to Face FTC Fact Checking
The FTC is getting a little tougher on companies making green claims — so-called "greenwashing." New guidelines would enforce stricter definitions of terms.

The Federal Trade Commission this month proposed changes to the green advertising guidelines it provides companies — as the FTC’s press release thoughtfully puts it — “to help them avoid making misleading environmental claims.”

The gesture sounds like an altruistic one. This eco-landscape is getting so confusing, what with all the recyclables, renewables, biodegradables and compostables. Why, here’s a little advice to help marketers sort that out!

But gleeful environmentalists have praised the announcement more accurately for what it really is: The government is about to make it harder for companies to “greenwash.”

That slur is about as ubiquitous today as “green” labels on a grocery shelf. It speaks to companies that have grown adept at papering over old products and services with new and ambiguous claims of “environmental friendliness.” The toolbox has long been full of evocative adjectives that don’t actually mean much (and thus can’t be contested easily).

(More here.)