Sins of Greenwashing

By Nancy August 10th, 2009

How “green” is “green”? There is so much confusion, misrepresentation, and half-truths regarding this buzzword, and “greenwashing” is abundant in our culture. Even if you’re not familiar with that term, you’ve probably experienced it: misleading marketing about the environmental benefits of a product. An outrageous example might be “lead paint, the natural choice”. Yes, lead is a natural element, but has been proven to be dangerous to our health in that application. Definitely NOT green.

I ran across a website for a marketing company called TerraChoice that offers a list of what it calls the “seven sins of greenwashing”–seven simple signs that should tip off consumers to a company that is more interested in selling the earth than saving it. When considering a product, I think these “sins” are good tools to keep in mind when evaluating their claims. (Check out the sins through the following link. http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/)

It seems to us that products fall somewhere on a green spectrum. Ultimately, each person needs to decide what aspects are most important to them, and we’ll always help our clients navigate through the benefits and trade-offs of products that are being considered for their project.

We want to create healthy home environments for our clients. To each person that may mean something different. To one person, it may mean using environmentally responsible eco-products. To another, it may mean having a calm space to retreat to from the pressures of the outside world. We believe it means both, and we work to achieve a balance between the two by creating a home that serves as a comfortable haven while being conscious of the effect of our selections on the larger environment.