Real or Faux Green? Eco-Marketing Deceptions

Eco-friendly products have flooded the market – which is great to see!  Unfortunately, you have to be aware of possible impostors – some supposedly green products have a more damaging carbon footprint than a simpler, non-green branded product.  How can you tell if a product is really green or if it’s just marketing?

This Sincerely Sustainable blog post shows the ANDREA air filter as a green imposter.  While the intentions of ANDREA are good – transforming plants into air cleaners – there’s a huge carbon footprint from creating this gadget (between sourcing, transportation and creating the manufacture and sale).

A better alternative than ANDREA?  Mother nature’s “houseplant” – A novel concept, and it costs about $197 less than the $200 price tag.

Other ‘green’ marketing scams & questionable companies include:

• Clorox “Green Works” products: contain corn-based ethanol (not cost-effective or eco-friendly) and sodium lauryl sulfate
• Gas-saving magnets: Save the $29.95 from this product that doesn’t work. They won’t ionize gasoline as advertised
• Sephora’s “Natural Standards”: This makeup by Sephora wasn’t regulated and contain high levels of harmful chemicals & cancer-causing agents
• “Green” hand sanitizers: Many of these hand sanitizers contain alcohol, a threat to safety and health in products.
• Even Toyota has been challenged as not having much better  fuel economy & protesting fuel standards in California.

Some people will try to attack any green theme as a scam – just like this article.   So should you forgo eco-efforts & purchases in threat of scam? Definitely not.  There’s tons of great earth-friendly options out there – you just need to be aware.

Let’s face it, everything has a carbon footprint – you ust need to figure out the products with the smallest.

We want to hear from you – What products have you found questionable?

Posted by Julie