Green With Deception

Remember those high top sneakers you just had to have when you were a kid? The ads promised they would make you run faster, jump higher and master a slam dunk—then you kept missing the basket and realized those shoes weren't doing anything.

Just like the shoe manufacturers played to our desire of being the baddest baller on the court, today many companies are looking to capitalize on our goal of creating a green home. Unfortunately, some are guilty of a practice called "greenwashing," or making their product out to be more environmentally beneficial than it really is.

For example, a company may tout the fact that its product is "chlorofluorocarbon free," even though those chemicals have already been banned for 10 years. Other tactics include hyping the fact that a paper product comes from a sustainable forest but neglecting the fact that a company's distribution methods are less than sustainable.

"If you don't understand where a green claim comes from, check it out. There are a lot of companies trying to relieve people of the green in their wallet," Scott Chase with the environmental marketing firm Terrachoice told Time magazine.

If you're curious about a green product you'd like to purchase, do your research. A group of green marketers and academic researchers have created the site Greenwashingindex.com, which allows consumers to post products and rate their advertising.

Have you ever been duped into buying a less-than-green product because of it's clever advertising? [Time]