Greenwashing

The term Green washing refers to the practice of some companies and business organizations/institutions of falsely advertising their products and policies as being environment friendly and "green" to fool consumers into buying their products or use their services. The means used may range from showing images of trees or serine forests to using names and quotes that create a seductive notion of nature or even using packaging that is coloured green and make consumers believe that these products are ecofriendly. These companies even make unsubstantiated claims using their own stupid logics of how consumers will do good to nature by buying their products and services.

The term was first coined by Jay Westerveld in 1986. He very rightly noted that, in most cases, little or no effort goes toward environment-friendly practices by these institutions. The actual objective of such "green campaign" on the part of these businesses is increased sales and profit, and no concern for environment.

It is ironic that in most cases more money and effort is spent by these institutions in advertising the products and policies as "green" rather than really adopting the green practices. In 2007, a report titled "Six Sins of Greenwashing" was released by an environmental marketing firm TerraChoice. The study reported that more than 99% of the 1,018 common consumer products that were randomly surveyed made unsubstantiated claims of being "green". A total of 1,753 environmental claims were made, with some products having more than one. Furthermore, out of the 1,018 products studied only 1 was found to be true and not guilty of Greenwashing.

The "Six Sins" stated were:

Sin of the Hidden Trade-Off: e.g. "Energy-efficient" electronics that contain hazardous materials. 998 products and 57% of all environmental claims committed this Sin.
Sin of No Proof: e.g. Shampoos claiming to be "certified organic", but with no verifiable certification. 454 products and 26% of environmental claims committed this Sin.
Sin of Vagueness: e.g. Products claiming to be 100% natural when many naturally occurring substances are hazardous, like arsenic and formaldehyde (see appeal to nature). Seen in 196 products or 11% of environmental claims.
Sin of Irrelevance: e.g. Products claiming to be CFC-free, even though CFCs were banned 20 years ago. This Sin was seen in 78 products and 4% of environmental claims.
Sin of Fibbing: e.g. Products falsely claiming to be certified by an internationally recognized environmental standard like EcoLogo, Energy Star or Green Seal. Found in 10 products or less than 1% of environmental claims.
Sin of Lesser of Two Evils: e.g. Organic cigarettes or "environmentally friendly" pesticides, This occurred in 17 products or 1% of environmental claims.

In 2009, the firm came up with a second report adding another sin to the list:

The Sin of Worshiping False Labels is committed by a product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement actually exists.

There also exists an equivalent political term "linguistic detoxification."

For examples of proven Greenwashing see the page "Caught Ungreen-Handed."