Here is a simple, yet concise definition of “green washing”…

The term “green washing” is used to describe companies who overstate their commitment to environmentally friendly alternatives to doing business. By doing so, ad executives (and the people that hire them) are suggesting that you’re so dumb as to be fooled into what an actual substantial change in a product is.

As anyone who has looked into the National Organic Program knows, there are significant difficulties in coming up with a single regulation that covers all of a federally mandated label with a specific definition. Declaring that the nutrition in food must be labeled in a specific way is easy compared to defining “green.”

Education on the underlying principles of the many facets of pollution is really the only way to allow people to understand and analyze products and services by rational merit.

As you can see, the term green washing can pretty much be applied to anyone, by anyone and is often slung at companies unnecessarily. Remember, the key is balanced green living! This green living blog is NOT about green washing by any means!