Green Wash(2)

As is discussed in the latest blog, greenwashing has been quite common since 1990s, not only in architecture, but in many other products as well. At the same time, plenty of organizations and individuals are making attempts to reduce the negative impacts of greenwashing by exposing it to the public.

In accordance with some organizations opposite greenwashing, a significant increase could be discovered in the use of greenwashing in the past decade. For example, the advertising consultancy company, TerraChoice Environmental Marking, published a report denoting a 79% raise between 2007 and 2009, and varied ways the greenwashing beginning to manifest itself.

As is pointed out by the Home and Family Edition, 95% of the products claiming to be sustainable or green are found to commit one or more “sins of greenwashing”, which includes sin of the hidden trade-off, of No Proof, of Vagueness, of Irrelevance, of Lesser of Two Evils, and of Fibbing.

In addition, a point system is set up by the US Green Building Council’s leadership in Energy and Environmental Design rating program. Some companies claim that environmentally minded policy changes could help them gain points in the program. It seems the point system is applied as an example of the “gateway effect” that the drive to products as environmentally friendly is on company policies.

Meanwhile, many state authorities have enacted regulations to limit the greenwashing trend. The Australian Trade Practice Act could be one example. It includes punishment of companies, which give misleading environmental claims. Any companies who are found guilty of such could face fines up to $1.1 millions, and pay for all expenses incurred when setting the record straight about their actual environmental impact.

In many cases, greenwashing could cost a considerable number money, time and efforts, but is without any real benefit to both environment and human beings themselves. Enacting regulations and giving punishment to those who are guilty of relative issues might be one of the best ways to limit the negative greenwashing tendency, and should be supported.

Reference:

http://sinsofgreenwashing.com/

Naish, J (2008). "Lies...Damned lies...And green lies". Ecologist 38 (5): 36–39.