7 signs of GREEN WASHING to look out for!
1.Scare mongering in advertising – Of course some ingredients can and should be avoided in skincare, but companies who feel they have to scare you into buying are probably more interested in a quick sale than good environmental practice.
2.Extreme claims- Perhaps the most commonly used green washed claims are ‘natural’ but be careful! In the unregulated beauty industry these claims have become exaggerated to the point of meaningless.
3. Earthy looking package designs.
Many companies are responding to our desire for more environmentally sound purchases by simply repackaging products to look greener with no real environmental benefit.
4.Certified - check certifications as many can be bought without official backing. Even those that are official might not mean quite what we think and rarely if at all mean all ingredient are organically grown.
5. Ambiguous labels – The best advice to avoid Green Washing altogether is to be vigilant in checking labels. Ironically, all ingredients (even natural ingredients) are listed under their chemical name but some companies are beginning to also add the common name or source of ingredients for more transparency. Genuinely greener brands are creating labels so clear and honest that they look more like the nutritional table you would find on a food.
6. Offers that are just Too Good To Be True. It is not possible to produce quality natural products at the same price as chemical based products. The old adage holds 'if it sounds too good to be true it probably is!' You won’t buy genuinely natural products at supermarket prices.
7. Manufacturing Practices
If a company isn’t manufacturing in a way that cares for the environment then it is unlikely that they have given much real thought to the environmental nature of the product itself. Make sure you look for products that are manufactured from renewable resources, use post .consumer recycled packaging and have set their carbon footprint to zero – these are the real actions and are an indication that the company is doing the hard yards (not just the easy ones) to live up to its environmental responsibilities.
