Environmental Claims in Consumer Markets Summary Report North America April 2009

TM3.Key FindingsThe data from the 2009 Seven Sins of Greenwashingrevealed both good news and bad. They also point toearly evidence of what may be two significant new trends.These are the key findings:• More products are making environmental claims.In stores that were visited in both 2007 and2008/2009, the number of ‘green’ products 4increased by 40% to 176% per store. This was anaverage increase of 79%, providing further evidencethat manufacturers and marketers are respondingto consumer demand for more environmentallyresponsible goods. This is good news. Althoughgreenwashing is still a problem (see below), thisfundamental increase in ‘green’ product selection isa strong signal that the green consumer movementis having good effect.(This increase in ‘green’ products is corroboratedby the increase in green advertising found in otherTerraChoice research. Since 2006, green advertisinghas almost tripled (Exhibit 1).)Legitimate eco-labeling is almost twice ascommon in this study (23% of products) as itwas in the 2007 research (14% of products).• A new Sin has emerged – the Sin of ‘WorshipingFalse Labels’. This new Sin describes an effort bysome marketers to exploit consumers’ demand forthird-party certification with fake labels or claims ofthird-party endorsement. This is described in detailin Section 3.1.• Legitimate Eco-Labeling is on the rise.Legitimate eco-labeling is almost twice as commonin this study (23% of products) as it was last year(14% of products). For this test, we recognized 14labels as ‘legitimate’. Among others, these includelegitimate ecolabels include EcoLogo, FSC,Green Guard, GreenSeal, and SFI.Proof is a central element of good green marketing,and a relatively easy one for marketers.• Greenwashing is an international challenge, withvery similar patterns in the United States, Canada,the United Kingdom, and Australia. This key findingis described in detail in Section 3.3.Additional details, including methodology andnation-specific breakdowns of the results, areprovided in Appendices A through E.• Kids (toys & baby products), cosmetics and cleaningproducts (diapers, toothpaste, and window cleaner,for example) are the three categories where greenclaims – and greenwashing – are most common.These products, among the most common ofproducts in most households, deserve particularscrutiny from consumers. Each category is detailed inSection 3.2.• Greenwashing is still abundant, with over 98%of ‘green’ products committing at least one of theSins. The data show a minor decline in the overallfrequency of greenwashing, but it does not appearto be statistically significant. Of the 2,219 productsclaiming to be green in the United States andCanada, only 25, or less than 2%, products werefound to be Sin-free.79%Average increase in the number of ‘green’products among North American storesvisited in both 2007 and 2008/2009.4In this case, and in every case in this report, ‘green’ products is shorthand for ‘products-claiming-to-be-green’(or other similar language or suggestion). In fact, few if any products can be correctly described as ‘green’. Mostof the best are still only ‘greener’ than the competitors.www.sinsofgreenwashing.org