FTC to Madison Ave: Stop Greenwashing

The FTC hasn’t looked at its environmental policies since the 90′s, but that is going to change.  After recent workshops, they’ve decided that it’s time to reevaluate their standards.  It seems that every major advertising company and PR firm across the country is starting up a “green” practice to advise their clients.  We talked about this recently with the “Good and Green Conference” here in Chicago which we were a little more than critical about.  Like we said then – go ahead and market your green products and services – just make sure they’re legit and not BS. 

A report in the fall by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing said it found that of 1,018 green products, all but one were marketed with false or misleading claims.  That isn’t surprising at all.  I’m really curious to see how things start to change.  They need to have hard guidelines and an independent third-party certification to verify the legitimacy of the products and services. 

 Source: Columbus Dispatch