Have you heard the news? TerraChoice released its 2010 Sins of Greenwashing: Home and Family Edition on Oct. 26 – TerraChoices third study of the environmental marketing claims found on consumer products. The premise of the Sins of Greenwashing report is that, in the midst of consumer confusion over green product claims, there is a tremendous opportunity to educate both consumers and companies.
This year, we set out to focus on products for the home and family, as these products give consumers a daily opportunity to use their purchasing power to make a greener world. We also made a point to highlight the most constructive findings, to encourage businesses to continue to improve their green practices and to be transparent in all their product marketing. What we found is both fascinating and telling.
Greenwashing Report 2010 (Link)
In this study, TerraChoice surveyed 5,296 products in Canada and the U.S. that make an environmental claim. The results show that consumers are exerting their purchasing power to both reward companies that are offering green product innovation and to scold those that are greenwashing. Consumer demand also appears to be having a positive effect on the amount of green products on the market today.
- In the 24 stores TerraChoice visited in both 2009 and 2010 (same brand, same location, same size), the number of greener products (products claiming to be green) increased by 73 per cent.
- Green products exhibited slightly less greenwashing in 2010 than was present in the 2009 Sins of Greenwashing study: the proportion of sin-free products appears to have doubled in each of the last two studies, from less than 1 per cent in 2007 to less than 2 per cent in 2009, and to almost 4.5 per cent in 2010.
- Greenwashing is still a significant problem: this year TerraChoice found that over 95 per cent of greener products commit one or more of the seven Sins of Greenwashing.
The consensus is that consumers are creating a gradually greener retail world.
Since the study was released, it has attracted the attention of a number of major media outlets across North America, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The Globe and Mail, National Post, Toronto Star, Journal Métro, Reuters, CBC.ca, Radio-Canada, EnvironmentalLeader.com, FoxNews.com, GlobalNews.ca, Grist.com, Sacramento Bee Online, and many more.
As we say in the report: scrutiny of environmental claims will be positive only as long as it manages to discourage greenwashing while simultaneously encouraging more and more green product innovation and commercialization. Thankfully, the evidence suggests the market is encouraged: there are more green products on offer than ever before, and greenwashing is in decline.
Read more about the study here.
Read the press release and watch a video about the study here.
Visit www.sinsofgreenwashing.org for tips, tools and solutions to help you find and market greener products.
