There’s greenwashing, and then there’s GREENWASHING, and sadly, it’s often hard to tell the difference. Sometimes greenwashing is a purposeful and blatant distortion of the truth. Often, it takes the form of half-truths or little green fibs. But just as often, it’s accidental – subtle mistakes that result from ignorance. We found this out firsthand when we put together a Green Products Directory a few years ago. We asked product manufacturers to list the LEED credits to which their product contributed. Boy, were we surprised at what we got back. Access control manufacturers claiming they were “energy efficient.” Roofing manufacturers claiming they helped reduce light pollution - because if there’s no roof on the building, of course interior light will leak outside! And darn near everyone claimed their product was made from recycled content.

Greenwashing in the consumer world is as much a problem as it is for building products. In fact, check out this study by an green certification body called TerraChoice that reports that of 1,018 consumer products studied, only ONE had no instances of greenwashing. The report also lists the Six Sins of Greenwashing, which are just as applicable and useful for facility folks shopping for interior paints as they are when you’re browsing the aisles at Target for dish detergent or diapers.

So how do you sort out the greenwash from the pure and clean? One way is third-party certifications like Greenguard, Green Seal or Energy Star. These ensure that a product has met some criteria for greenness. But it’s still important to find out what those criteria are and how they were established. A question we’ve had in the back of our minds here, but especially since we revamped the Green Products Directory to only include products certified by those recognizable third-party organizations, is what green criteria you use for product selection? Is a green certification a must on building products you purchase? If yes, I’d love to hear about the ones you consider and why. Please comment below or send me an email (greg.zimmerman@tradepress.com).