Reporting from Washington —
If you are interested in buying an environmentally sound house or residing in a sustainable community, you need to become familiar with the term "greenwashing," which basically means proclaiming something is environmentally sound when it really isn't.
FOR THE RECORD
Green building claims: In an article in Business on Sunday about "greenwashing" -- exaggerated or false green building claims -- consultant Jennifer Languell said it takes more energy to manufacture and transport a photovoltaic panel "than it is ever going to produce over its useful life." Photovoltaic panels have been the subject of detailed analysis for decades, and the consensus has long been that over their expected lifetime they produce far more energy than they consume in manufacture.
A combination of the words "green" and "whitewash," the term was reportedly coined by suburban New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 in an essay regarding the hotel industry's practice of promoting the reuse of guest towels in a supposed effort to conserve water, when in fact there was little or no effort toward waste recycling.
Today greenwashing, a.k.a. "green sheen," is rife as companies rush to take advantage of heightened consumer interest in environmentally beneficial products.
Green is so pervasive that the Federal Trade Commission is revising its environmental-marketing guidelines a year ahead of schedule. The so-called green guides, which haven't been updated since 1998, outline principles for all environmental marketing. The review was supposed to begin this month, but because of the jump in green advertising claims, the consumer watchdog agency decided to act earlier.
Perhaps no industry has embraced the green mantra more than housing. And with that has come a lot more hype.
Green building consultant Carl Seville says that although many builders claim to be green, most "aren't there yet." As a result, the Decatur, Ga., resident says, buyers who want a green home but don't really know what they want "are caught in the cross-hairs."
A nationally recognized consultant who helps builders and developers create healthy, efficient and sustainable projects, Jennifer Languell says greenwashing not only "spans all spectrums" of the housing market but is "extremely prevalent."
Many builders "do as little as possible" to be green, she says. "The common attitude is, 'Do the minimum.' It is rare that a builder really wants to raise the bar."
Languell, president of Trifecta Construction Solutions in Fort Myers, Fla., says she sees exaggerations of the green aspects of the building products that go into a single-family home as well as entire projects. And a December 2007 study by TerraChoice, a Canadian environmental marketing firm, backs her up.
In a survey of six big-box retailers, TerraChoice found that only one of the 1,018 consumer products tested did not make false claims with regard to greenness. Why? Because there is no such thing as pure green, Languell says, only greener.
