TerraChoice

Global watching and The Six Sins of Greenwashing

When we, at TerraChoice, released the report called The Six Sins of Greenwashingä last year, we never could have imagined the response it would receive. We soon became aware that the world was watching. And possibly even more significant was a distinct rumbling arising from the coverage that was streaming in. It appears our Six Sins study hit a nerve and was sparking dialogue about a growing skepticism around “green” products.

For those of you not familiar with our Six Sins report, we recently conducted an in-store survey of product-specific environmental claims found on 1,018 products from six North American retailers. A staggering number of more than 99 per cent of products surveyed were found to be sporting deceptive “green” marketing claims. We found patterns that helped us classify these false or misleading marketing claims into six categories (click here to view the report).

Since its release, GreenBiz.com has reported that the Six Sins study was one of the major environmental stories of 2007. Online coverage was astounding and radio and television was quick to follow. The global reach has been observed in articles published in India, Australia and across North America.People around the world are buzzing about products on the “green” market. This heightened interest in the environment has revealed consumer skepticism and savvy around environmental marketing claims. If left unchecked, this kind of distrust of environmental marketing claims has the potential to hurt the planet and the market share for truly environmentally preferable products. TerraChoice’s President and CEO Scott McDougall has termed this trend the “Seventh Lesson of the Six Sins.” Read more about the warnings issued from this seventh lesson in our latest issue of EcoMarketer and stay tuned for advice on honest and effective eco-marketing.