This morning I attended a program on Greenwashing courtesy of Westchester County’s Conversations on Conservation. Here’s my review of what went on along with some links for you to learn more.
Patti Wood of Grassroots Environmental Education gave a thoughtful overview of the situation and mentioned a great resource:
The Seven Sins of Greenwashing. That tip was worth the trip. From there, the discussion seemed to go off topic and even down hill.
Next up was Lea Cullen, the sustainability coordinator for Westchester County Parks. She spoke about the challenges of getting soap without Triclosan. She forgot that some in the audience might not even know what the heck Triclosan is! It’s a toxic chemical found in anti-bacterial soap, which is favored by many germophobes. So was she talking about green washing? Like washing your hands with greener products? Clearly a different definition than what Patti Wood was talking about!
Last but not least was Dr. Larry Bridwell, Professor of International Business at Pace University.
He spoke about BMW and how they are positioning themselves as a green company. Dr. Bridwell has spent extensive time in Germany and told us that German drivers are nowhere near ready to slow down, they love their Autobahn with no speed limit. The Greenwashing Index gave BMW a 4.6 out of five. That’s about as close to BS as you can get!
Dr Bridwell also mentioned that Pepsi was on campus earlier in the week talking about reducing their water footprint. Don’t even get me started with Aqua fina and all the rest of the Pepsi propoganda!
The bottom line: check out the Seven Sins of Greenwashing Print one of their handy dandy BS detectors for your wallet and play the Name that Sin game teach your kids critical thinking skills. If you help them to become familiar with the misleading tricks connected with green washing, it will cross over to their food choices as well.
