Green Washing

The Truth about Green Washing!

I've been away from the "blogishpere" for sometime now (having two kids in two years will tend to do that). But I recently came across an article in a new magazine that I've been reading (Fast Company) about Green Washing.

In recent years (probably mainly because of the two kids) I've become much more aware of green issues, and would like to do everything that I can to pass on a viable planet to future generations. As part of that I do try to find products which are "Green", whenever I can. However the writers of this article did a little research and selected over 1200 "Green" products to look at. Would you like to take a guess as to the percentage of these products that were just claiming to be green, as opposed to actually doing something real to help the world????

Try 99.9%!!! OUCH!!!

In other words if you are trying to be conscious like me to buy green products you are really only doing something good 1/10 or 1% of the time!

Now in fairness the criteria that the writers chose was very strick. But still even if you relaxed the criteria and brought the green products up to 50%, is that really any good? I mean some of these products use 1% recycled paper in the packaging, and are horrible for the environment besides and put a huge "GREEN" at the top of the label and you and I purchase it thinking we are saving the world when really we're just make it worse!!!

Another great overall point that the article made was that people that are truly trying to be green aren't as worried about the smaller stuff like the percentage of recycled paper in the toilet paper they buy (although every little bit does help) as they are about moving to a home where they can ride their bike to work. Or finding someplace where they can grow their own food. Things like this.

It's really the bigger items that will make the vast difference. But for people that are at least trying to make a difference even if in some small way, it's a shame that they wool gets pulled over their eyes, and they end up making things worse.

They moral of the story is that Green might not be easy, but it can be cheap and worth while, but you'll have to do your research!