As someone starting to manufacture products that are as-green-as-I-can-get-them-but-not-perfectly-green, I struggle with this issue.

Flat out deception in claiming to be environmentally friendly is absolutely greenwashing, and wrong. I love your practical tips to help people see through some common greenwashing tactics.

As this important issue gets more attention, though, sometimes people are too quick to condemn ANY green action if the product/company isn’t “perfectly” green.

It’s a fine line. My concern is that when people start “exposing” a company’s latest green efforts as greenwashing because the company still does things that aren’t as green, it will discourage companies who are sincerely making efforts to improve their environmental practices (but who aren’t all the way “there” yet).

I think it’s a particular concern for small businesses. I’ve seen a few articles in the past few months “exposing” both multinational companies and local businesses. One critiqued a local restaurant for touting its switch to more sustainable paper products than they’d been using. Instead of complimenting them on taking a step in the right direction, the exposé pointed out all of the things they were doing wrong: providing disposables at all, not sourcing food locally, serving “unhealthy” fast food, etc. I think the point of the article was that the restaurant had been grossly overstating their “green-ness.” That might be absolutely true, but was it evil? Or even intentionally deceitful?

It might be more effective to praise them for what they did right, while educating them about important improvements they could make. Being praised because of one simple green step might encourage them to take further steps.

I hope that both consumers and advocates try to strike a balance between honing their skills at identifying deceptive practices while still encouraging companies who have just taken their first step.

Or as @TreeHugger says, we shouldn’t let perfect be the enemy of good.

http://www.treehugger.com/files/2010/08/sustainability-black-and-white.php

Thank you for the comments. I agree with you that it is tough to be a consumer this day and age. You are better than I if you are making things from scratch. That is great ! Keep it up.

Stacy