2Sustain

Even though the Federal Trade Commission’s has stepped up efforts to curb greenwashing, new results from the 2011 Cone Green Gap Trend Tracker show that most Americans continue to be both skeptical of companies environmental claims (57 percent) and overwhelmed by the barrage of (often misleading) environmental messages in the marketplace (51 percent).

What’s more, there appears to be a considerable knowledge gap regarding what actually constitutes a legitimate green claim. This year, 97 percent of those surveyed said they know what common environmental marketing claims such as “green” or “environmentally friendly” mean, yet Cone found that these interpretations are often inaccurate. More than two-in-five Americans (41 percent) erroneously believe that claims such as “green” or “environmentally friendly”  mean a product has a positive (i.e., beneficial) impact on the environment. Only 29 percent understand that these terms more accurately describe products with less environmental impact than previous versions or competing products.

In addition, the 2011 Cone Green Gap Trend Tracker showed that: (more…)

The flap between Dell and Apple last week over MacBook’s marketing was further proof that there’s a lot of confusion right now over what classifies as “green” and what doesn’t. The problem is pervasive and extends far beyond the competing, and sometimes dubious, environmental claims of computer manufacturers. In fact, during a hearing on Capitol Hill earlier this month, Scot Case, the Vice President of TerraChoice, testified that of all the products claiming to be eco-friendly, a whopping 98% are guilty of greenwashing.

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