4 Ways to Avoid Greenwashing
Picture this: You’re newly aboard the wellness train. You’ve got your green juice. You’re tossing candles and swapping perfume for essential oils. You’re considering a water filter, and you’re shopping the outside aisles of the grocery store.
You get home with a new haul of groceries, cleaning products, and personal care products whose labels read like they were God’s gift to all things clean, natural, and held to the highest standard of health and safety on the market.
Or are they?
Enter Greenwashing.
Greenwashing, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, can be defined as “[making] people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is.”
So basically, it’s the tale as old as time: Sneaky Marketing 101.
Any Madmen fans remember this line?
"Everybody else's tobacco is poisonous. Lucky Strike's is... toasted." - Don Draper, Mad Men
A la Don’s usage of toasted, by slapping words like natural, clean, fresh, pure, etc. onto labels of everything from aluminum foil to Z-bars and everything in between, how does one know what products are really green and safe?
Step 1: Beware the sneaky, subliminal marketing messages.
Branding gurus love using the color green to help you think something is safe and clean. In the same vein, if you see a cozy koala or any other animal for that matter on the label, your brain likely sends a little message saying, “Aw, cute little kangaroo. They must care about animals. This is probably safe!” Same scenario if you see the words pure, environmentally friendly, natural, eco-friendly, green, fresh, preservative-free, non-gmo, and even organic!
If you see this, don’t just robotically add to cart. Instead….
Step 2: Read the label.
Rule A#1: If you see the word “fragrance” pass that baby to the left, to the left. The word fragrance can be used to mask 1000s -- (1000s!!!) -- of undisclosed chemicals, all in the name of making a scent. We promise, promise once you start side-stepping synthetic fragrances, you will.not.miss.them. For more info on this sneaky ingredient, we recommend watching the documentary Stink!
In addition to fragrance, here are the big ones you definitely want to avoid:
Anything ending in “cide” because this signifies pesticides
Anything anti-bacterial messes up the body’s microbiome and actually harms our immune systems rather than helping them
For food, be wary of “no sugar added” because this typically means synthetic sugar substitutes have been used
Essential Oils: make sure they’re organic or wildcrafted
Anything ending in “ol” or “ene” because these likely mean a petroleum or coal-based original source
Synthetic preservatives in personal care products such as MIT, BIT, parabens, sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, benzalkonium chloride, phenoxyethanol
Likely a duh, but avoid any dyes in foods as well
We know the list can be overwhelming, so stick with this rule of thumb: The shorter the ingredient list, and the more words you know, the better.
Step 3: Remember certifications that actually mean something.
The USDA Certified-Organic label is one you can trust whether you’re shopping at Wal-Mart or Whole Foods. If a product simply says “organic” on the label without this certification - this is a red flag.
We also value the Made Safe certification, though this one is definitely hard to come by.
Step 4: Use your tools.
We love the Environmental Working Group (EWG)’s App! You simply enter a food or product brand, and they will give you the safety rating from 0-10. The lower the score, the better.
Use our Trusted Products page for tried and true brands for everything from food/drink to non-toxic living and personal care products!
We know the path to making more mindful product choices can be daunting, and we are more than happy to help guide you. Never hesitate to reach out to us!