Greenwashing: The Green Movement for Big Profits

Educational Area: Ecology

Go Green and check out livinggreenchannel.com Hey everyone, I'm Elizabeth Chambers and you're watching LivingGreenChannel.Com, your online Video source for living an eco-friendly lifestyle. For big business, going green has become the trendy and profitable thing to do. On the shelves of any store you can find products that boast green claims such as eco-friendly, energy efficient, Organic, and partially recycled. How many of these claims do you think are untrue or completely false? If you guessed 99.9 are false you would be correct.rnrnAccording to a study from Terrachoice Environmental Marketing out of 1,018 common consumer products reviewed only one product didn’t commit one of the “6 sins of greenwashing.” rnrnWhen looking for an eco product that backs up it’s claims and is good for the environment where can you turn? Unfortunately, as this study proves, these products don’t exist. And here is why. According to Terrachoice’s research over 50 of products tested with eco friendly labels fail to mention the enormous environmental drawbacks such as containing hazardous waste and travel costs. These need to be factored in when considering to buy and eco-friendly product. For example even eco-popular CFL (Compact Flourescent Lightbulbs) contain mercury (meaning they can not be thrown in your trash) and over 90 of them have been manufactured and shipped from China.rnrnThis is called the “sin of hidden trade-off,” by Terrachoice. Think of it this way, no matter which way you slice it a can of soda will never be good for your health or the environment. Diet Soda has replaced the sugar with an artificial sweetner that has proven to be a slight carcinogen that may or may not cause cancer. In many cases the diet sodas still contain excessive amounts of caffeine, artificial colorings, and flavors, not to mention not nutritional value, which are harmful to your health. When you factor in a manufactured can that needs to be recycled and travel costs what is the health and environmental impact of a single can of soda? rnrnrnrnThe wise and green consumer would stay away from Soda and unhealthy foods altogether. The path to sustainable living is fairly simple: Make a conscious choice to live your life with the least impact on the environment. What does this really mean?rnrnIt means that when faced with a choice to purchase one product over another instead of choosing the energy efficient product vs. the non energy efficient product you would choose neither product. A real green product label would boast “You could live without this.” And In most cases you could. rnrnrnrnThese products reflect an economy built on mass consumerism and energy waste. We live in an era where it has become far cheaper to throw out our old one and television or computer and buy a new one than to repair it. It’s not just the products that are misleading we are misleading ourselves by buying a product with a green label to make ourselves feel better. Until we are ready to consume less, and choose sustainable living greenwashing will always be a trendy and profitable way to conduct business. (more)(less)

Embed: