How to Avoid Greenwashing: 5 Tips for Getting Started

How to Avoid Greenwashing: 5 Tips for Getting Started – Angie Cruise Blog

How to Avoid Greenwashing: 5 Tips for Getting Started

Want to be sure you’re buying the best products you can? Learn my best tips on how to avoid greenwashing and become a smarter consumer with these tips.

We talk a lot about natural living here on the blog, and in general, but there’s one really important piece of the puzzle I think we’re missing. It’s the fact that most companies are out for one thing, and one thing only:

And they’ll go to really great lengths to get that profit, even if it means misleading their consumers.

The bottom line is…not everything is what it seems. As consumers, it’s up to us to do our research and know that the product we’re buying is natural. We can’t take everything at face value anymore, and we can’t assume that just because it’s on the shelf at the store, that it’s safe and good for us.

On that note, today I want to give you a little more information to help you be an empowered consumer. We’re going to talk about

. In this blog, I’ll cover what it is, why it’s a bad thing, and give you some tips on how to avoid it. Let’s get started.

What is Greenwashing?

Greenwashing is when a product or company

they’re eco-friendly, but they spend more money and effort trying to prove it than actually implementing it.

For example, last year, I decided to give a really popular cleaner a try. I’m not going to name names, because that’s not what this post is about, but I’ll share my experience!

everywhere. Their branding is really simple and organic looking and lots of bloggers I admire took on their campaign. They’re all natural and formulated with essential oils! Since everyone was talking about them, I

to give them a try.

Man did they smell amazing and work really well. They quickly became a favorite.

I didn’t realize until months later that I’d become the victim of greenwashing.

You see, the company knew what they were doing. They knew that essential oils had become a buzz word, and so they used that in their marketing. And yes. They

use essential oils in their products, but upon digging further into their website, I realized they

used artificial fragrance and other ingredients I don’t allow in my home.

But, none of their marketing material mentioned those things. They put so much effort into keeping our attention on the essential oils that they

all natural if you didn’t look too hard.

It’s basically a bait and switch. Give the people what they want, but don’t work

Why is greenwashing a problem?

Most of us are just over here trying to do the best we can. We want safe ingredients for ourselves, our kids, and our families. They do it in other parts of the world, so why does it seem impossible here?

I don’t know about you, but all I want is to be able to trust that I can go buy something at the store and know that it’s safe and effective. But, that’s not the case, because “natural” and “safe” have become marketing terms that companies are using just to profit off of us wanting better.

Don’t get me wrong. There

some honest companies who say, “Hey. Maybe there’s something to this. Let’s try and make this product without all the crap.”

But there are many,

more dishonest companies who pick up on the trend, replace the

ingredient that’s in the hot seat at the moment, and leave all of the other ingredients we haven’t noticed.

Then, they re-release the product, and it’s rebranded to look all natural, and we as consumers think we’re doing better. But, we’re not. At least, not until we take matters into our own hands and stop trusting this marketing.

So, how do we avoid greenwashing when we shop for products? That’s what I’m getting to next.

How to Avoid Greenwashing

Don’t trust packaging made to look “natural”

Companies put a lot of thought into their packaging. Think about how you feel when you see one of those simple brown and green packages. They use words like “natural,” “pure,” and “organic,” and it makes you feel really good!

But…is it organic? If it’s missing the certified organic logo, it’s

organic. And also, words like natural, pure, green, and simple don’t actually mean anything. They’re just marketing terms that companies use without any real backing.

This type of packaging makes you feel really good about buying it, because it looks like a great natural option. But the truth is, you could probably be spending your money on a better and

product if you can learn to look past the packaging and the buzz words.

Take a look at their claims

You can tell a lot about a company by taking a look at their marketing claims.

What are they saying?

Are they giving you really specific information about their product? Or are they being really vague and using words that don’t mean much?

If they’re being really vague…you might be getting greenwashed.

Remember: If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Learn your ingredients and know what to avoid

We can’t inherently trust that items on the store shelves are safe. We also can’t trust the packaging or the marketing claims anymore.

So, how do you know you’re getting a safe product?

By reading the labels.

Yep. Flip that bad boy over and look at the actual list of ingredients on the back or bottom of the container.

Some of the ingredients I recommend avoiding are:

SLS (Sodium Laurel Sulfate)

You can read more about these ingredients, why I avoid them, and more in my post about

detoxing your home

. I also have a list of ingredients to avoid that you can download for free