How to Avoid Being Greenwashed

"New York, NY (PRWEB) October 2, 2008 -- With environmental concerns on nearly everyone's personal radar, more and more consumers are purchasing items marked as eco-friendly, sustainable, nature-loving, certified organic and the like. When a company claims a product is green, the public believes them. And all too often, the public is misled. Greenwashing - falsely claiming or implying that a product or service is environmentally friendly - has become common practice as consumers' interest in the wellbeing of our planet is at an all time high.

Kim Carlson, one of the country's leading experts on earth-friendliness, and the author of the upcoming book, Green Your Work: Boost Your Bottom Line While Reducing Your Eco-Footprint, warns that while greenwashing can be as blatant as using a picture of wild flowers on the label of a dangerous synthetic chemical - subconsciously making the consumer think that it is natural - it can also be innocuous. "Even the consumer who knows what materials to look for can be misled," Carlson states. "Take for example, someone who chooses a bamboo table knowing that bamboo is sustainable. It's what happens before the table makes it to the store that is the concern - that bamboo may have been sourced illegally from a old growth rain forest that was cut down to farm the bamboo," she adds."

Read the article