Everyone wants to be environmentally friendly,

but who actually is?

GREENWASHING

“disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible

public image”

More than 75% of the public will switch to a brand associated with the environment when

price and quality are equal

-The 1997 Roper Green Gauge Reports

History of Greenwashing

1980 1990 2000 2010

The 1st Earth Day (April 22) was held, encouraging industries to promote environmental activities

1992: The Federal Trade Commission created the “Green Guidelines”, to define terms used in environmental marketing. The guides were revised again in 1996 and 1998.

1999:Greenwash became a word in the Oxford English Dictionary

1970

From 1990-2009:44 FTC Environmental cases of Greenwashing

• Qualifications and Disclosures

• Distinction between benefits of product, package, and service

• Overstatement of environmental attribute

• Comparative claims

• Environmentally friendly• Degradable• Compostable• Recyclable• Recycled content• Source reduction• Refillable• Ozone safe/ozone friendly

Online Survey

Percentage of investments expended

ASA

Fiji

Rebranding

Emissions

Carbon Offset

Biodegradable

SurveySurvey AgencyAgency ActionAction FirmsFirms

Remove Statement

Class Action

Charge Compliance

Protest Boycott

FTC

Consumers

Fiji

• Marketing Firms– The Green Guides are a starting point, but very vague

• Kmart American Fare Paper Plates

– “The lack of specific rules for how companies should make environmental claims shows how complicated some of these issues can be. There’s very, very little area in which there's a lot of concrete guidance”• Lew Rose, Advertising and Marketing Attorney with Kelley Drye &

Warren

The Opposition

Recommendations

Consumers, Company’s, and the FTC agrees-There needs to be concrete guides to

Green Marketing

The Key is not relaxed rules or even enforceable regulations……

Recommendations

The Key is: Education

Currently the FTC only distributes information to consumers and firms

through three pamphlets

ImplementationCrawler

Consumers

CorporationsEnviro Marketing Firms

Consumers

coordinate

coordinate

Educate

Enforce

FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz quoted ‘noted environmentalist’ Kermit the

Frog stating, “It’s not easy being green, but these Guides will

hopefully make it easier.”