Avoid being 'green-washed'

Avoid being 'green-washed'

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Story Published: Jun 17, 2008 at 8:02 PM PDT

Story Updated: Nov 20, 2008 at 9:50 PM PDT

By KOMO Staff

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Many companies, both big and small, are "going green." Everyone's bragging about it in magazines, on billboards and on TV.

Marketing company EnviroMedia says many green claims are authentic, but faulty claims "green-wash" the consumer.

"Green-washing is like white-washing where you're telling a fib, exaggerating a little bit, but in this case, you're doing with it a big green brush," said Kevin Tuerff with EnviroMedia. "That's when those companies are going to get into trouble. Because consumers will hunt them down."

Tuerff challenged the Ad Club of Seattle to raise the bar on green marketing before the term becomes meaningless.

And, along with the University of Oregon, EnviroMedia created the "green-washing index" as a tool for evaluating the environmental claims of advertisements.

"Based on the ad's use of words, visuals or graphics, we get to rank from 1 to 5,1 being good, 3 - pushing it, or 5 - total green-washing," said Tuerff.

Consumers are challenged to evaluate ads they come across, then share their index rating on EnviroMedia's Web site. Consumers are asked to look for misleading words and visuals, unprovable claims and exaggerations in the ad.

The goal of the index, the group says, is to hold businesses accountable and to help consumers become more savvy.

And a number of consumers have begun participating. The Web site lists a number of product reviews that range from an ad for Sunchips, which are said to be made with solar energy, to General Motors' ad on climate change.

Tuerff says it will be at least a year before the Federal Trade Commission issues green guidelines. Until then, products stamped with the USDA organic label and the Energy Star symbol can be relied upon.

But do your own research on products that claim to be "carbon neutral," "compost-able" or "Earth-friendly," to name a few.

"We have a global climate crisis. We need companies to do things, change their ways, become more efficient and then tell their story," said Teurff.

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