November 10, 2009 Written by Tracy Hepler
As the environmental movement has grown in the last few years, so has the popularity of using terms like green, eco and LEED to enhance the appeal of certain products to eco-curious consumers. While it is great more and more consumers are interested in these products, what is becoming increasingly dangerous is that many within the green community are continually misusing the terminology.
About a month ago I was in San Francisco CA for West Coast Green, an annual conference that highlights the field of green building and design. During a panel entitled “Next Gen Design, Out of the Cradle Now What” designer and blogger for Fast Company Gadi Amit touted Dell’s new studio hybrid laptop as being LEED certified. There was a bit of confusion in the crowd as products cannot be LEED certified (we also contacted Dell and they stated that “so far no computers are LEED certified”). LEED certified specifically refers “to a voluntary, consensus-based national rating system for buildings designed, constructed and operated for improved environmental and human health performance.”
During the Q & A after the panel an audience member (who happened to also be a LEED accredited professional) brought up to Amit that he had used the term incorrectly, that LEED certified does not apply to products, only buildings. Rather than facilitate a discussion, Amit continued on to say that it is people like her who hinder the green movement by holding LEED and other such certifications to “holier than thou” standards. The discussion was never resolved as the panel ran out of time and many left the panel confused about the issue.
What bothered me so much about this was not just Amit’s miss-use of the term as we all can make mistakes, but his offence to being called out for using the term incorrectly and than faulting the audience member and others like her for hindering the green movement by wanting to use certifications and terms correctly. Currently there is no regulation for the term green, eco, sustainable-anyone can slap that label on their product with no questions asks. The green movement has only a few certified standards such as LEED, Organic, Fair Trade, FSC Certified, to misuse these items for the sake of “selling green to the masses” is dishonest and is probably part of the reason that somany people claim to be confused about what green actually is and fewer Americans see solid evidence of global warming from a year ago and perhaps why lobbyist are trying to weaken these standards.
So I post the question to you readers. Should we green wash in order to continually push and spread green?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments.
Images via ecojovens and moso-bamboo
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Amit displayed nothing but arrogance in the face of factual truth. I don’t believe we should “green-wash” to spread the green if it means mis-labeling products as eco-friendly, when they are in truth, not so green. Though I would not be opposed to “green-washing” if it means that a “green lifestyle” is made hip and accessible to the mainstream population at large!
I don’t believe we should “green wash” if it means mis-labeling anything. We already have so many things “mis-labeled” that we do not need to add to it. Green is truth. We need things to live, let’s at least try and embrace the truth of what that means and do our best at minimizing the footprint with it. If you “green wash” everything it will discredit the movement. I say find the people misusing the term for their product and discredit them. There should be standards. Don’t trick the public so they think they are being green and in reality they are not. Let’s think about public accountability and not let this happen!