By Karen Melton, Southeast Pennsylvania Group and Sylvanian Volunteer
As more people become concerned about the state of the environment, the consequences of climate change, air and water pollution, plastics, and the extinction of species, the number of ‘green’ product claims continues to grow.
Science denial, blaming the consumer, and greenwashing are all strategies that go hand in hand. Science denial is as old as the tobacco campaigns we read about in Naomi Oreskes’ 2010 book, Merchants of Doubt. Blaming the consumer was an intentional strategy by the plastics industry who recognized early on that disposable waste would be an intractable problem, and launched the ‘Keep America Beautiful’ campaign to make sure they weren’t held responsible.
I’m sure my mother didn’t think she was feeding me candy for breakfast, but certainly the cereals I loved as a kid, and are still on grocery shelves today, are nothing but sugar wrapped around some grains that have had any nutritional value refined out of them, with lots of chemicals added for shelf life.
As consumers increasingly push back against denial and blame, greenwashing is becoming a =common strategy with descriptors like ‘healthy’, ‘sustainable’, ‘natural’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘recyclable’, ‘cage-free’ and ‘carbon neutral’ applied to everything from fossil fuels to coffee pods. As if Exxon Mobil could ever be carbon-neutral, or a tablespoon of coffee grounds in a single-use plastic pod could ever be environmentally friendly.
Enter State Representative Chris Rabb (D-200) from Philadelphia with a bill (H.B. 2525) that updates language in Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law to prohibit greenwashing.
Rabb had this to say in a news release about the bill: “For decades now, corporations have taken advantage of environmentally conscious consumers by intentionally marketing their products in a manner that makes them appear better for the planet than they really are. This devious and manipulative practice is known as ‘greenwashing.’ You often see it when companies use terms such as ‘net zero,’ ‘low carbon’ or ‘cleaner energy,’ even if those claims are not based in reality or are aspirational at best. As we increasingly experience the drastic effects of the climate crisis, such as more intense storms, floods, droughts and wildfires, the last thing Pennsylvania consumers need is to be lied to as they try to make informed purchasing decisions.”
While Rabb is not expecting the bill to succeed in the current session, which has few voting days left and an environment-unfriendly Senate, it is an exciting idea, and we can look forward to re-introduction next year when prospects might be improved.
This blog was included as part of the October 2024 Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!