You are striving to do the best you can for your environment. You always buy environmentally friendly products for your house. You do the research on the company and their products before you make your purchase, but can you be completely sure that you’re not being greenwashed?
Greenwashing is a term that was coined in the early nineties to describe the actions of a company or government agency who advertises eco-friendly products when their practices and products may not be as beneficial or sustainable as they first appear. Greenwashing strategies are often employed so that a company can market its goods as eco-friendly though at the same time they may not be fully facing up to their claimed commitment to helping the environment. An example of this is computer companies who purchase carbon offsets without developing other strategies to reduce their carbon emissions.
These days as an increasing number of companies try to earn consumer merit points by ‘outgreening’ their competitors. It’s happening across the board, and though it is most apparent among automobile and energy companies many IT producers are also guitly. To add to the confusion many of the seemingly encouraging eco-friendly product labels are ambiguous or misleading. Carbon Offsets are perhaps one of the most ambiguous and misleading environment-friendly labels so it's always worthwhile looking deeper into any company who buys them.
How can you separate the wheat from the chaff and avoid being greenwashed? Unfortunately there are no shortcuts. It’s up to you to do the research and the legwork but there are some things you can to make it less of an ordeal. Firstly, check out EPEAT. They conduct standardized rating of computers based on a tight environmentally-friendly criteria, it's a great place to start. A close second is the greenwashing watchdogs, though there is no all-encompassing consumer guardian, there are a few reliable groups that help to keep greenwashers at bay, including www.greenwashing.net and www.CorpWatchdog. Thirdly, you can keep a look out for non-organic materials that are hidden away on so-called green computers such as toxins like lead and mercury. Last but not least, do a little background research into the company or store you are purchasing from and beware of exaggerated claims.