On Store Shelves, Sorting the Green from the Greenwashed

by Emily Gertz

category: Consumer

Published August 28, 2009 @ 06:00PM PT

Above: Image via Allianz Product Carbon Footprint project

If you're the kind of person who wants action on global warming, chances are that you're also the kind of person who tries to shop his or her convictions.

Chances are you also wonder if you're being conned. With nearly every item on store shelves these days making a claim to enviro-sainthood, how likely is it that every manufacturer's green claims have any basis in fact?

Well, the internet is here to help. Via The Consumerist, here are some online resources that can help you pick out the real green from the greenwashed:

• The Federal Trade Commission's "Facts for Consumers: Sorting Out 'Green' Advertising Claims" advice sheet
• Consumer Reports Greener Choices web site, particularly its Eco-labels Center
• How to spot fake green claims from ShopSmart magazine, another Consumer Reports publication.
• Study: 98 Percent of "Eco-Friendly" Products Make Misleading Claims, published in June by Mother Jones

Now, about global warming specifically: For most Americans, consuming less is simply the single best way to cut our consumer carbon footprint. But when you do need to buy, how can you make purchasing decisions that can have a positive impact on the climate, or at least minimize the negative impact?

After the jump, a few rules of thumb that might help curb the climate guilt:

1. Buy used: Most of a product's "energy intensity" -- the amount of energy used to create it, and thus greenhouse gas pollution generated -- is concentrated up front. It's nearly all in sourcing the raw materials, manufacturing the product, and shipping it to its first point of sale. So buying used makes the most of the energy already invested in an object's existence.
2. When buying new, buy for the long term: When you evaluate a potential purchase, ask yourself if that product will still be useful to you in a year, two years, even ten years down the road -- both in terms of how well it's made, its durability. Ask yourself whether you'll still like it and want to use it, and if it will allow you to avoid additional purchases down the road.
   Sometimes getting that durable good means spending more money up front. In my experience, that extra initial expense amortizes out to very few dollars per year of use. Most cheaply made goods fall apart much faster, ultimately costing you more.
   (Lately, when I can't afford the more durable product, or find it at an affordable price, I don't buy it until I have the money. Might work for you, too; might not.)
3. Buy Forest Stewardship Council-certified wood products. Based on research I've done in the past, FSC-Certified products have a good chance of living up to their claim of coming from sustainably managed forests. Harvest for mass-produced consumer goods is a leading cause of illegal logging, in some of the world's largest remaining temperate forests, but forests are crucial to both maintaining and restabilizing the climate.
4. Look for EnergyStar certified electrical products. This joint program of the US Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency has had its shortcomings. But it remains a good guidepost to finding products that will consume less energy. And new, stronger standards for refrigerators and other products are on the way.

Have some suggestions for sorting green from greenwashed, and factoring a lower carbon footprint into your consumerism? Or is consumerism climate-damaging on any terms?

The comments await you.