Regulating Greenwashing
While various government and civilian groups monitor truth in advertising, the regulation of environmental claims is still an evolving area. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission recently began hearings to update its 1998 green marketing guidelines, announcing that there was a "heightened potential for deception" in the market [source: NY Times].
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The United States Federal Trade Commission is updating its green marketing guidelines.
In other parts of the world, governmental bodies such as the United Kingdom's Advertising Standards Authority weigh in on greenwashing issues while European law requires that advertisers list their CO2 emissions in advertisements. As for the companies themselves, many push for continued self-regulation or encourage the involvement of self-regulation organizations such as the European Advertising Standards Alliance and the National Advertising Division of Council of Better Business Bureaus in the United States.
When governmental regulation falls short or self-regulation is questionable, advocacy and watchdog groups step in. The majority of greenwashing charges are leveled by environmental groups like Greenpeace, Friends of Europe and Co-op America, along with other groups like CorpWatch and GreenBiz that focus directly on greenwashing or corporate environmental involvement. The Web site Greenwashingindex.com even allows users to post examples of suspected greenwashing. Participants vote and rate the deceptiveness of advertising.
From the consumers who monitor it to the big businesses that practice it, greenwashing exemplifies society's increasing attention to its own impact on the environment. Even when corporate promotions of new green technologies and global environmental efforts are self-serving or deceptive, the message still reaches the masses that mankind's impact on the natural world must be taken seriously.
Drive green -- buy a clean-running hover car. Sounds like a great idea, but such science-fiction technology is still a long way off. It's certainly not the sort of thing major auto companies could get away with promoting today as an example of their environmental stringency, right?
Yet auto companies don't hesitate to promote clean-diesel, hybrid and fuel-cell technologies to polish up their green image, despite the fact that wide-spread or practical usage of such technologies may be decades away.
Consider the hydrogen car. While the vision of an oil-free future with clean-running cars filling up at the local hydrogen station is encouraging, there are multiple technological hurdles before a hydrogen economy can replace a gas economy.
The auto industry regularly takes heat over the environmental effects of producing and using gas-powered automobiles. They continue to produce and promote gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and actively lobby against environmental legislation that would force them to cut down on carbon emissions. Critics argue that by promoting involvement in fuel-saving technological research, auto companies distract from their current environmental policies. After all, what's easier: promising a hydrogen car tomorrow or creating sustainable policies today? |
For more information on greenwashing, watchdog groups and environmental issues, please look over the links on the next page.
