GREEN FEATURE
LAWMAKERS: WHAT'S GREEN and WHAT'S
GREENWASH ?
By GreenBiz Staff
June 12, 2009
“A 'virtual tsunami' of products touting environmental attributes is flooding
the marketplace with little, if any, evidence to help consumers determine what
is green or greenwash. That's the assessment of a panel of product and certification
experts who visited Capitol Hill this week to offer lawmakers their opinion
of the state of green marketing in the U.S. The hearing, aptly titled, “It’s
Too Easy Being Green: Defining Fair Green Marketing Practices,” aimed to explore
consumer perception, truthfulness of claims and the role of the Federal Trade
Commission and private certifiers and labeling programs in regulating and verifying
advertising, Bobby Rush (D-Ill.), chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee
on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, said in his opening statement. The
numbers are daunting: The word “natural” appeared on the label of a third of
new products last year, according to a recent study from Mintel Global New Products
Database. The number of products claiming to be environmentally friendly rose
nearly 200 percent. But although there is growing consumer interest in determining
whether products are safe, the public has too little or questionable information
on which to base their purchasing decisions, according to panelist Dara O’Rourke,
co-founder of the GoodGuide Inc. and an associate professor at the University
of California, Berkeley. "It is now nearly impossible for the average consumer
to get the information they need to determine whether a product is truly green:
how and where they were made and the potential health or environmental impacts,"
O'Rourke said in his prepared testimony. ” Read full text at:
http://www.greenbiz.com/print/34931
Select Sustainability Reading
Cities and Natural Process: A Basis for Sustainability. by Michael Hough. 1995
Design With Nature. Ian L. McHarg. Ecological Design. by SymVan Der Ryn. 1996
Landscape Ecology. by Richard T.T. Forman & Michel Godron.
Sustainable Communities: A New Design Synthesis for Cities, Suburbs, and Towns. by Sym Van Der Ryn and Peter Calthorpe.
Toward Sustainable Communities: Resources for Citizens and Their Governments. by Mark Roseland & Stacy Mitchell. 1998
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