A 2009 report by TerraChoice found that the average number of "green" products on store shelves in Canada and the U.S. nearly doubled between 2007 and 2008. (iStock)

Keith Stewart clearly enjoys recounting his outrage at what he considers the most offending "greenwashing" ad he’s ever seen: a GE video for clean coal that employs the use of sexy, scantily clad miners, set to the old union tune about digging 16 tonnes and being deeper in debt.

"It's a song about the exploitation of coal miners from the 1930s, and they use this as this glorification of coal," said Stewart, director of the climate-change program for World Wildlife Fund Canada.

Another favourite of Stewart’s is a cleaning product that claims to be "chemical free." Stewart bought it just to have an example of the audacity of such greenwashing — a term describing claims that mislead consumers about the environmental benefits of a product or service.

It’s no surprise that a consumer society would try to shop its way out of the environmental mess, but many would say it’s a step in the right direction. Says Stewart: "I don’t want to be too Pollyanna-ish and say that with a little bit of green consumerism, we’ll be okay."

'You can make a pretty compelling … claim that [the U.S. and Canada] kept the global economy going by buying things that we don’t need with money we don’t have.'—Denis Hayes, the original Earth Day co-ordinator

Public interest in reducing one's carbon footprint is at a high, with more products than ever making green claims. An Ispos-Descarie survey of 1,055 people in February, sponsored by paper-recycling giant Cascades, found that close to 50 per cent of Canadians claimed to have changed their consumption habit to reduce the environmental impact of their purchases, a proportion that's risen five per cent since a similar survey was taken last year.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, manufacturers have increased their green claims.

"The more that the public is thinking ecologically, companies are going to move into that marketplace and it's going to require really savvy consumers to distinguish between the greenwashing and to punish the people who are doing the greenwashing," said Stewart.

Stewart attempted to "punish" GE by posting the offending coal mining video to Greenwashingindex.com, a website where people can post, comment on and rate ads and videos making dubious environmental claims.

The website, run by EnviroMedia Social Marketing in partnership with the University of Oregon, has print and video ads from all types of companies, big and small. "Worst offenders" get prominent play, like a disposable diaper ad that claims to be "pure and natural" and 2008 ad for a Texas coal-fired power company that played up its connection to Earth Day.

98% of 'green' products fail on at least 1 label claim

A 2009 report by the Ottawa-based environmental marketing firm TerraChoice, entitled The Seven Sins of Greenwashing: Environmental Claims in Consumer Markets, found that the average number of "green" products on store shelves in Canada and the U.S. nearly doubled between 2007 and 2008, and that green advertising nearly tripled between 2006 and 2008.

The TerraChoice report also found that 98 per cent of 2,219 products they tested made a green claim on its label that failed scrutiny, thus committing at least one of the seven greenwashing sins, which include the sins of vagueness, irrelevance and no proof.

"Most greenwashing is not outright false," Scott McDougall, president and CEO of TerraChoice, said in an email interview from Paris, where he was speaking to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development on environmental claims and greenwashing.

"Most is simple over-statement and exaggeration. And I think most of these mistakes are made rather innocently. So I'm forgiving of the motives, while still wanting to improve the transparency and truth of the claims."

The question is, does a disposable society get the dubious environmental marketing claims that it deserves?

Not completely, McDougall said.

"It's easy and true to say that disposability (not to mention consumerism, immediate gratification, short-term thinking and designed obsolescence), are all symptoms and causes of the problems that the sustainability movement is trying to correct," he said.

"But it's also true that these expectations arose reasonably. They arose in good times, they contributed to seemingly better times (when we didn't know better). The industrial revolution has given us every environmental problem we're trying to solve," said McDougall.

'We deserve better'

"So, we're getting the greenwashing we've invited, but not that we deserve. We deserve better, and it's not too late to train companies to meet these more evolved expectations," he said.

As the 40th anniversary of Earth Day approaches, many companies are rolling out new campaigns about changes they’ve made to become greener, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing — but it adds to the green clutter that consumers must wade through.

Denis Hayes, who co-ordinated the first Earth Day in 1970, has advice about how to reduce the information overload.

"Don’t buy unnecessary stuff," said Hayes, now president of the Seattle-based environmental funding agency Bullitt Foundation.

"You can make a pretty compelling, arm-waving claim that [the U.S. and Canada] kept the global economy going by buying things that we don’t need with money we don’t have," said Hayes, "Over and above the environmental consequences, it’s just breathtakingly stupid."

Toronto author Gillian Deacon, who wrote Green for Life, is trying to instill the same frugality she grew up with in her three school-aged kids, something that isn’t so easy in a consumer-based economy.

"If you stood and looked at a landfill and looked at the amount of plastic, there’s lots of evidence to demonstrate what a gluttonous, resource-exploiting generation we are," said Deacon, who is now working on a second book about green cosmetic and beauty products.

At the same time, "I think the desire to do right by the planet has never been stronger," she said.

Deacon recommends that those who want to buy green products look first for official environmental certifications, not just comforting claims, like "eco-friendly," "all-natural," even "biodegradable."

Look for reliable certifying agencies

Examples of credible certifications include FSC – the Forestry Stewardship Council, Green Seal, Energy Star and EcoLogo, which was established by the Canadian government in 1988 and is now managed for Environment Canada by TerraChoice.

And don’t be fooled by logos designed to look like as if they came from an official body.

The most recent TerraChoice report noted the emergence of a new "sin" since the firm's first greenwashing report in 2007 — the sin of false labels, where a product gives the "impression of third-party endorsement. Fake labels, in other words."

Fake labels made fade away as real certifications become more recognizable. Hayes is particularly jazzed by one of the newest Earth Day sponsors, Underwriter Laboratories, which is moving into environmental certification.

"If we can find people who are willing to make a significant commitment and who are doing something to make the world a better place, we’re pleased to be in with them. And if Exxon wants to come in, there’s no room for Exxon," he said.

Besides buying verified green products, another action people can take is to contact their elected representatives, said Stewart. Individual messages about the desire to go green helps give politicians an idea of the public mood. And if the public mood is to go greener, green polices are more likely to follow.

"If politicians think people don't really care, then they don’t care," Stewart said.

Which brings us back to the clutter of questionable environmental claims, because the more people show an interest in all things green, thus sending that important message to policy makers, the more companies are going to want in and will promote whatever aspect they can to claim greenness.

Deacon figures that’s part of the growth of the green society.

"I think that greenwashing is evidence of the fact that companies want to appeal to that desire that consumers have. We’re at the beginning of that transformation," she said.

Stewart has his own measure to see how widely spread the green message is being broadcast and, more importantly, received.

"When I watch a hockey game, I used to see just ads for trucks and now I see ads for these fuel efficient vehicles," he said. "Hockey Night in Canada ads are a barometer."

Says TerraChoice’s McDougall: "If we're to encourage even more green product progress, we need to recognize and reward the innovation, point out and expect improvement on the imperfections (in the marketing and in the product), and encourage the company to keep at it.

"We must pursue perfection, and reward the imperfect steps that will get us there."