More than 95 percent of consumer products are guilty of committing at least one offense of "greenwashing," a term used to describe unproven environmental claims, according to the report "Sins of Greenwashing." The report was released last month by TerraChoice, an environmental-marketing company. TerraChoice's study found that the number of products claiming to be green increased by 73 percent since 2009. TerraChoice visited retail outlets throughout the U.S. and Canada and inventoried every product that made a green claim; they found 5,296 products. The company looked whether green products committed any of its "7 Sins of Greenwashing," including fibbing, offering no proof and being vague about environmental qualities.
TerraChoice looked at 729 building products typically found at big box DIY retail outlets. About 70 percent of those products provided no proof for their green claim, and about 70 percent provided vague claims. TerraChoice also found that there were 108 percent more green building products in 2010 than there was in 2009. The full report can be viewed here.
TerraChoice is owned by Underwriters Laboratories, an independent product-safety certification organization; both TerraChoice and Underwriters Laboratories offer green-certification programs.
