Real or Faux Green? Eco-Marketing Deceptions

Eco-friendly products have flooded the market – which is great to see!  Unfortunately, you have to be aware of possible impostors – some supposedly green products have a more damaging carbon footprint than a simpler, non-green branded product.  How can you tell if a product is really green or if it’s just marketing?

This Sincerely Sustainable blog post shows the ANDREA air filter as a green imposter.  While the intentions of ANDREA are good – transforming plants into air cleaners – there’s a huge carbon footprint from creating this gadget (between sourcing, transportation and creating the manufacture and sale).

A better alternative than ANDREA?  Mother nature’s “houseplant” – A novel concept, and it costs about $197 less than the $200 price tag.

Other ‘green’ marketing scams & questionable companies include:

• Clorox “Green Works” products: contain corn-based ethanol (not cost-effective or eco-friendly) and sodium lauryl sulfate
• Gas-saving magnets: Save the $29.95 from this product that doesn’t work. They won’t ionize gasoline as advertised
• Sephora’s “Natural Standards”: This makeup by Sephora wasn’t regulated and contain high levels of harmful chemicals & cancer-causing agents
• “Green” hand sanitizers: Many of these hand sanitizers contain alcohol, a threat to safety and health in products.
• Even Toyota has been challenged as not having much better  fuel economy & protesting fuel standards in California.

Some people will try to attack any green theme as a scam – just like this article.   So should you forgo eco-efforts & purchases in threat of scam? Definitely not.  There’s tons of great earth-friendly options out there – you just need to be aware.

Let’s face it, everything has a carbon footprint – you ust need to figure out the products with the smallest.

We want to hear from you – What products have you found questionable?

Posted by Julie

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Julie Hancher is Editor-in-Chief of Green Philly, sharing her expertise of all things sustainable in the city of brotherly love. She enjoys long walks in the park with local beer and greening her travels, cooking & cat, Sir Floofus Drake. View all posts by Julie Hancher