Health By Nature…Where Clean Meets Green!

Green.  Eco-friendly.  Fair trade. Natural.  Organic.  Do these terms look familiar?  Lately, they seem to be all around us on a variety of products, services, and companies.  The *green* movement is hotter than ever, and companies want to jump on the bandwagon.  But, do you know if the claims they make are accurate?

*Greenwashing* is the term given to the practice where a company makes claims about its products or services to make them seem more environmentally friendly or harmless to human health.  These claims can end up being false and misleading, and fool consumers into thinking they are buying something they are, in fact, not.

The term *natural* has a rather ambiguous meaning, and there is no regulation for its use.  Products that identify themselves as being *natural* have been proven to in fact have ingredients that have been genetically engineered.  Something created in a lab is not *natural* in the sense something directly derived from nature would be.  Also, some chicken companies claim they are 100% *natural*, despite feeding their birds antibiotics. Arsenic and formaldehyde are *naturally* occurring substances, but they aren’t something I’d want in, say, toothpaste.
One rather amusing case of greenwashing had the claim that its packaging consisted of *100% recycled paper*.  The container was plastic.

The term *organic* is another that is often misused in labeling.  Loosely, the term can mean part of it is derived from plant material.  Some companies that use the term *organic* may have a very small percentage of the total ingredients that fit the term.  Other companies go as far as claim that their product is *certified* organic, yet some consumer sleuthing does not result in any proof of such certification.

Third-party certifiers can give more assurance in proof of labeling, although there are of course exceptions to this as well.  A company that makes these claims should have proof of its accuracy, and it should be readily available for consumers to make informed decisions about what they are indeed purchasing.

Sometimes a company’s claims are accurate, but there are hidden trade-offs that are not mentioned; this kind of deception is more difficult to spot.  A company might produce a product that is packaged in recyclable material, but a trade-off may be their production methods are harmful to the environment.

For consumers, the best line of defense is a degree of skepticism.  Do your homework to find out if a company’s *green claims* are indeed worthy of your purchase.  There are several watchgroups that expose these fraudulent claims.  Check out  corpwatch.org and greenwashingindex.com