Is it green? Or ‘little green lies’?
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BY BOB REEVES / Lincoln Journal Star
Scarcely a day goes by that there isn’t a news release about a product described as green or good for the environment.
Some recent examples: “green” T-shirts with environmental messages, “natural” toothpaste with no alcohol or artificial dyes, hand-powered action toys that use cranks instead of batteries, “eco-friendly” jewelry and housewares made from recycled wood, paper and glass.
Marketers tout green baby showers, green weddings, “Green threads for Earth Day.”
Empyrean Brewing Co. of Lincoln has jumped on the environmental bandwagon by announcing new “greener” packaging, which consists of containers made from recycled materials. They replace previous containers made from virgin wood fiber.
The new six-pack container is not only easy on the environment, it’s also stronger and easier to carry. And, surprisingly, it’s a little less expensive, said Jim Engelbart, Empyrean marketing and production manager.
The lower cost “helps offset the skyrocketing costs of the malts and hops used to make our beers,” added Engelbart, “We hit the trifecta ” a better box at a better price that reduces waste.”
There’s even a book publisher, Kedzie Press, that promises to plant a tree for every book you buy (see www.kedziepress.com).
No doubt about it, green is in. But sorting out the products and services that really save energy or are beneficial to the environment is difficult, especially with all the hype.
“If you’re genuinely interested in reducing your ecological footprint, you have to do some work,” said Cecil Steward, president of the Joslyn Castle Institute for Sustainable Communities.
Steward’s is one of a growing number of voices that argue that human beings must clean up their act or face dire consequences.
“The rivers are running less, the glaciers are melting,” he said. “The soil and water is contaminated. If we keep doing what we’re doing, the apparent endgame is unacceptable.”
Steward, dean emeritus of the University of Nebraska College of Architecture, has long been a champion of recycling, conservation and redesign of human habitations and lifestyles based on the concept of sustainability and balance rather than depletion. About three years ago, he started EcoStores Nebraska, which features recycled building materials and fixtures.
The Joslyn Institute seeks to educate people about the need for sustainability, not only in the way buildings are constructed but in how companies are managed and the products consumers buy. “We need to realize that sooner or later the supply chain becomes the waste chain, so anything we use has an impact on the environment,” he said.
The rising cost of gasoline at the pump is just the tip of the iceberg of looming resource shortages, Steward believes. But it’s boosted consumers’ concerns about the long-term resource future, with the result that more and more people are seeking “green” products — and more and more marketers are jumping on the bandwagon to capitalize on that demand.
However, many of the words used in product labels, such as “green,” “eco-friendly,” “natural,” or “energy efficient,” should be signals to consumers to do some research before they buy, Steward said.
One important tool in the consumers’ arsenal is knowing the difference between nice-sounding words and actual certifications, which carry some real clout.
For example, while the word “green” has no precise or clear definition, labels such as “Green Seal” and “Greenguard” are certifications that consumers can count on to identify products with specific environmental benefits.
Green Seal certification, covering hundreds of products from coffee filters to cleaning fluids, means that a product meets strict standards for materials, manufacturing processes, consumer use and ultimate disposal to minimize harm to the environment.
Other such certifications include Energy Star, for energy-efficient appliances, and Greenguard, mostly for building materials, certifying that the product meets stringent tests of chemical emissions.
Looking for certifications and knowing what they mean is an important step in avoiding greenwash, a term referring to unsubstantiated or meaningless claims about a product’s greenness.
“As the demand for green products has accelerated, manufacturers have increasingly used green as a hook to market their products, with little or no verification of the data being reported,” said Greg Zimmerman in a July 2005 article in Building Operating Management magazine. “Marketers have learned that green is gold and have bent over backwards to tout the greenness of their products — and that has contributed to confusion about which environmental claims are actually true.”
While most manufacturers are probably honest about their products, greenwash “can run the gamut of ‘little green lies,’ like adding the phrase ‘environmentally friendly’ to a product’s marketing when the product hasn’t been changed at all, to blatant untruths meant to purposefully hoodwink a buyer,” Zimmerman wrote.
The only way to avoid that, Steward and others caution, is for purchasers to beware of nice-sounding labels and check out any claims by contacting the manufacturer directly. A manufacturer that refuses to explain what a particular environmental claim means has a right to lose a customer’s business, they say.
Environmental writer Cissy Trask, in the book “It’s Easy Being Green,” urges consumers to visit company Web sites and follow up with e-mail questions about any claims they don’t understand.
“Consumer decisions should not be based solely on what is desirable, affordable and allowable,” she writes. “Acquire knowledge about the products you intend to buy. What materials or ingredients make up the product? How did its creation or harvest impact the environment? Will its use and disposal aggravate or alleviate waste and pollution?”
The book is filled with tips for reducing the amount of energy, water, petroleum products and other chemicals in home and office. In terms of purchasing, she preaches “buy not, buy less, buy green,” encouraging consumers to evaluate whether they really need something and then seeking products that have the least impact on the environment.
Consumers should prefer products produced locally to minimize the energy used for transportation, produced from renewable resources or recycled materials, manufactured in the least polluting way possible, and made with materials that can be recycled.
Many people are diligent in taking newspapers, plastic bottles, metal cans and glass to recycling centers, but recycling won’t work unless they also complete the chain by purchasing products made from recycled materials, Trask says.
One local business that specializes in recycled products is Straw Sticks & Bricks. The store at 720 O St. has flooring materials, carpet and wall coverings made from recycled fibers, recycled wood and paper or renewable materials such as soy or linseed oil rather than petroleum.
The store also features old-fashioned linoleum, a highly durable floor covering that is made from a mixture of linseed oil, cork flour, wood flour and natural resins. All the materials are renewable, and the finished product will last longer than a vinyl floor, co-owner Jen Carlson said.
Straw Sticks & Bricks also carries a countertop material made from recycled paper and a natural wood resin as well as upholstery materials made from recycled fibers or all-biodegradable materials.
The demand for such products is growing, said co-owner Josh Shear, Jen’s husband. The couple opened the store eight years ago and also has a store in Kansas City. “At first, people thought we were a little out there,” but now many people are specifically asking architects and designers for green products, he said.
Gift items made from recycled materials also are available there, including a bottle opener made from a bike chain, a lamp with a shade made entirely of recycled plastic, bowls and flatware made from bamboo (because it’s a grass rather than wood product, it is one of the most renewable building materials), bud vases from re-used shotgun casings, toothbrushes from recycled yogurt cups and cutting boards from the paper-based countertop material.
Many of their wood-based products are Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified, meaning that the wood is harvested in such as way as to be least disruptive to the ecosystem, Shear said.
Both he and his wife predict that as consumer awareness of “green” alternatives increases, manufacturers will meet the demand by producing more “green” products. And if consumers do their homework, they can assure that the products really are green, not just a lot of hype.
Another local business that has demonstrated a high concern about the environment is A to Z Printing. The company itself has met requirements for FSC certification and displays the logo proudly on its Web page.
It offers paper products from sustainable forests or recycled materials, soy inks and printing processes that avoid harmful chemicals. “We use 100 percent recycled material from a plant that uses wind power. When we do our own marketing, we send it out on that,” said Miriah Zajic, vice president of administration for the company.
“There’s a growing demand for green products, and it’s coming from the bottom up,” she said. “I don’t think it’s a fad.” Rather than being forced by government regulations to make changes, consumers are seeking ways to voluntarily reduce their negative environmental impacts, she said. “It think it’s a trend that’s here to stay.”
A to Z is part of Lincoln Green By Design, a group made up of private and public groups and developers seeking to reduce energy use in buildings and encourage efforts to improve fuel efficiency.
Paul Daniels Interiors has a line of furniture from Precedent called the “Eco-Collection.” It features overstuffed sofas and chairs with frames made from FSC certified hardwoods and recycled steel, soy-based foam padding and recycled or recyclable fabrics made from sustainable fibers such as cotton and linen.
“This is still a fairly new niche in our industry,” but interest is growing, said Jennie Griffin, an interior designer at Paul Daniels. “Consumers are becoming more knowledgeable, and the price is coming down.”
One factor that may leverage more interest in natural and recycled fabrics is that the price of synthetic fabrics is directly linked to the price of petroleum, Griffin said.
“I’m a big believer that the consumer has to change the market,” said Joyce Coppinger, a member of the Lincoln Green Build Group, which promotes green alternatives to traditional building methods.
The more consumers know about what makes a product really green, the more the producers will respond, she said. “A lot of manufacturers are starting to understand that they need to do this.”
Look at the label
Are you confused by all the labels that claim their products are good for the environment?
Here are some “green” certifications to help you figure them out:
DEFINED AND REGULATED
Green Seal: An independent, nonprofit organization that evaluates and recommends products based on criteria that emphasize pollution prevention and environmentally responsible life cycle management. To see the criteria for specific products, visit www.greenseal.org.
Energy Star Rated: A program of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that rates such products as home appliances and electronics based on energy consumed and/or saved. The Energy Star label means a product meets minimum energy efficiency standards.
Greenguard: This seal of the Greenguard Environmental Institute certifies that building products or furnishings have low chemical emissions to improve indoor air quality.
Forest Sustainability Council: This organization, trusted by environmentalists, certifies that lumber or paper products made from wood are harvested so as to conserve water and soil, preserve wildlife and habitat and maintain forest composition and function.
Sustainable Forestry Initiative: This is a program by the lumber industry to certify wood or paper products from tree farms managed for sustainability. A “100% Certified Content” label means that 100 percent of the raw material in a product comes directly from an SFI-certified forest.
DEFINED AND UNREGULATED
Biodegradable: The Federal Trade Commission defines “biodegradable” as a substance that has been scientifically proven to break down entirely and return to nature in a short time after disposal.
Recyclable: The FTC stipulates that a package or product should not be marketed as recyclable unless it can be collected, separated or otherwise recovered from the solid waste stream for use in the manufacture or assembly of another package or product through an established recycling program.
Recycled: According to the FTC, the recycled content claim may be made only for materials that have been recovered or otherwise diverted from the solid waste stream, either during the manufacturing process or after consumer use. Unless the product or package contains 100 percent recycled materials, the label must tell you how much is recycled.
UNDEFINED AND UNREGULATED
Green: Legally, the term is meaningless. Any manufacturer or marketer who uses the term should be asked to define its meaning.
Chemical Free: An arbitrary label, so it’s wise to get further information about any products using this label. The U.S. government requires products containing toxic chemicals to carry the words “DANGER,” “POISON,” “WARNING” or “CAUTION.”
Source: “It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living,” by Crissy Trask (Gibbs, Smith, $12.95)
Reach Bob Reeves at 473-7212 or breeves@journalstar.com.
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