Maybe you think you are, but perhaps that “green” product isn’t so green after all. The Globe and Mail recently reported that the Competition Bureau will soon be making it a lot tougher for companies to deceptively label their products as green. That is to say it will be tougher for companies to “greenwash” consumers with claims that are misleading or outright false, as products labelled as green often sill have substantial environmental footprints, even if certain negative aspects of a product have been addressed. I’m thrilled to see this movement by the Competition Bureau as I have often felt torn by the action we’ve seen to date by most corporations. On the one hand, they are taking steps in the right direction. On the other, the steps are still of the “incremental” type, rather than the significant change that needs to happen to stabilize this planet.
The article also advises that the Competition Bureau will be working with the Canadian Standards Association to publish industry guidelines that will clearly define terms like green. That we are moving toward a time when companies will have to transparently label their products on environmental fronts is good news. Some companies have even already begun to do so, including Timberland which includes an energy “nutrition” label on its footwear. However, a lot of work is still needed in this area.
Ultimately we need measurement tools which easily allow us to compare products based on their entire life cycle. This means being able to ascertain whether that organic apple from New Zealand has a smaller impact on the environment than the local one that was grown using conventional methods. An example of such a system would be the Sustainable Business Achievement Ratings (S-BAR) which is currently under development. S-BAR touts itself to be “the first comprehensive system with a market-based, broadly applicable, and transparent means of assessing a company’s environmental, economic and social performance”. Hopefully such a system will soon be on store shelves, making it easier to determine how green a product really is.
