Good Grief..."Green" Opportunism

[Grumpy]

4 'green' claims to be wary of
Charges of 'greenwashing' are on the rise as more companies pitch their products as good for the health of their users and the environment.
By Amy Tennery, The Big Money
In "greenwashing," as in life, there are seven sins. There's the sin of the hidden trade-off, for example, the sin of vagueness and the sin of no proof.

So says sinsofgreenwashing.org, which takes on companies that offer seemingly green benefits -- often at a hefty price tag -- with little results.

As the green trend continues, companies in almost every industry are vying for a piece of the green market; even embattled General Motors (GM, news, msgs) has taken a chance on its own green product initiative.

But as the field of green products grows, so does the number of impostors. The following is a list of some of the most perplexing green products out there -- and an assessment of just how scammy they might be:

Clorox's Green Works products
Green Works was launched by Clorox a little more than a year ago under the pretense of bringing eco-friendly home-cleaning products to the mass market. Several of these products, however, contain corn-based ethanol, which the environmental community has targeted for being neither cost-effective nor eco-friendly.

Talk back: Skeptical of 'green' claims on products?

Many items in the Green Works line also include sodium lauryl sulfate, which the company describes as a "coconut-based cleaning agent." That may be true, but, coconut or not, SLS has long been criticized by the scientific community for its not-so-natural effects; the American College of Toxicology described SLS as a known skin irritant in a report published more than 20 years ago.

A few of the wares in the line also contain synthetic dyes, which were included because of what Clorox representative Aileen Zerrudo described as "consumer feedback."

"We tested products without fragrances and dyes," Zerrudo said of marketing research the company conducted. Test subjects were put off by fragrance- and dye-free formulas' resemblance to water, and perceived them to be less effective, she said.

Perhaps, but Seventh Generation's Free & Clear line of cleaning products seems to be doing just fine.

While the creation of these products is a fairly transparent move to nab a spot in the increasingly popular "green" market, Clorox managed to score endorsements from the Environmental Protection Agency when it launched all of its Green Works products with the exception of its bathroom cleanser. Zerrudo said the cleaner was recently added to the EPA's approval list, after the company agreed to remove glycolic acid from the formula.
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What is most perplexing about Green Works, however, is that the line was launched through a partnership between Clorox and the Sierra Club, which receives an undisclosed sum for its association with the products (its logo is featured on the bottles), an unorthodox tactic for a nonprofit organization. Zerrudo is quick to point out that the Sierra Club in no way "endorses" Green Works. The amount of money Clorox donates each year to the Sierra Club is "based on sales," she said, and last fiscal year the environmental group received $470,000 from Clorox.
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Clorox should be applauded for its transparency -- it clearly identifies all ingredients on product labels and on its Web site. The company also deserves acknowledgment for altering its bathroom cleaner to meet EPA standards. But more environmentally sustainable ingredients could be substituted for many of the active substances.

Compared with do-it-yourself home cleaners and other green cleaning options, Clorox Green Works is hardly the best choice. Being the lesser of two evils is good, but only if it truly is less evil.

Clorox promises that this line is almost entirely "all-natural." But this term is relatively meaningless, as neither the EPA nor the Food and Drug Administration maintain a standard for what counts as a "natural" product.

For a step forward from harsh chemicals, Green Works is a decent bet, but for truly green home-cleaning products, stick with merchandise from Seventh Generation, a Burlington, Vt., company that makes cleaning and laundry supplies, light bulbs, diapers, paper products and personal care items.

[Danny]

I'm sick of hearing about green everything!!!!

[Grumpy]

Yeah. Was one of my favorite colors at one time...