‘Greenwashing’ proving to be new liability frontier

The number of so-called ‘green’ or environmentally friendly products is on the rise, and there has been a corresponding up-tick in the number of ‘greenwashing’ liability suits against companies accused of exaggerating the environmental benefits of their products, says Levick Strategic Communications.
Greenwashing is defined as the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service, explains environmental marketing firm Terrachoice.
“Questionable green claims create a new false advertising litigation frontier,” Levick’s newsletter, High Stakes, says. “Companies must act now to limit the reputational and bottom-line liabilities that can arise when going green.”
S.C. Johnson, Procter & Gamble and American Honda Motor Company are a few of the companies targeted in lawsuits, the newsletter says.
The latest development in greenwashing, according to Terrachoice, is “the sin of worshipping false labels.” In other words, “some marketers are mimicking third-party environmental certifications on their products to entice consumers to buy,” a release says.
A survey conducted by the firm between November 2008 and January 2009, studied 2,219 consumer products in Canada and the U.S. and found that 98% committed at least one “sin of greenwashing.”
Other common cases of greenwashing include:
•    the hidden trade-off, or when one environmental issue is emphasized at the expense of potentially more serious concerns;
•    when environmental assertions are not backed up by evidence or third-party certification;
•    vagueness, or when a marketing claim is so lacking in specifics as to be meaningless (i.e. use of the term ‘all natural’);
•    irrelevance, or when an environmental issue unrelated to the product is emphasized (ex. claims of being CFC-free when the use of CFCs has been banned for quite some time); and
•    making outright false environmental claims (ex. products falsely claiming to be Energy Star certified).