Greenwashing - Washing laundry with grass?!

I am very glad to see more companies in the news for jumping on the environmentally friendly train. In terms of the overall health of the planet and our future, it is a really important step and one of the most important things consumers can support. However, I have also recently learned the term greenwashing, sometime also known as green sheen. 

Greenwashing is a wholly unhelpful way of doing business. I don't know about you, but the term itself conjures images of laundry commercials where a load of whites is contaminated by a lump of grass and everything turns green. Its not clean and now things are ruined. Greenwashing is similar on a marketing level. Greenwashing is when companies find ways to make their products look or sound, or even market them, as environmentally friendly, despite not being environmentally friendly. Greenwashing is a way of lying to entice people to buy products. 

Unfortunately this kind of scam happens a lot in the marketing industry. When you see something listed as environmentally friendly, check the company. See if they are a Certified B Corporation or have some other kind of accrediting label. Just because the packaging says it is environmentally friendly doesn't mean it actually is!