Greenwashing Index: Rate Your Favorite
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 03. 7.08
Readers who follow our Greenwash Watch will enjoy Greenwashing Index, a new website set up by Austin's Enviromedia Social Marketing, who also founded America Recycles Day. It is an "interactive forum that allows consumers to evaluate real advertisements making environmental claims."- you submit a print or youtubed ad and vote on it on five criteria- does the ad mislead with words, images, make vague or unprovable claims, overstate how green the product or company is, or mask important information.
It is also entertaining and fun.
This Chevy ad got a 4.6 out of 5 maximum for suggesting that hydrogen fuel cell cars are zero impact, without mentioning where the hydrogen came from.
This "local and lovin' it" shirt is made in Bangladesh. Lots more at ::Greenwashing Index
This could be an excellent resource. The only thing that worries me is that the people who really need to use it - those consumers how float about a supermarket dropping anything and everything into their shopping carts - won't bother to use it. It's probably only going to be popular with people already concerned and relatively knowledgeable about the environmental impact of their purchases.
Still this is a valuable addition to a consumer's aresnal in the fight to stem environmental damage.
Good one.
Steve N Lee
author of eco-blog www.LionsledbySheep.com
and eco-suspense thriller 'What if...?'
Maybe we should look at ourselves and our attempt to put everything under a green banner. Every single day we are bombarded with new stories of something being eco-friendly. But can we really make eco-friendly goods? Or are we talking about eco-friendlier? Everything has an impact on the environment. Some just more than others. So why do we insist that some things are eco-friendly and others not. Is it not just a case of eco-friendlier than the alternative? Is a Prius eco-friendly? No. You won’t suck on the exhaust pipe. It is just better than the alternative. More on this at my blog in http://angryafrican.wordpress.com/2008/02/17/make-it-better-how-friendly-is-eco-friendly/
These guys were one of the speakers at the Seattle Advertising luncheon this past week, it was a big enough deal that local ABC station covered it and supposed an article for adweek. I wonder what other models exist out there that provide the consumer with actual information about the products they are lookiing to buy.