Great breakdown of types of Greenwashing

http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/findings/the-seven-sins/

Sin of the Hidden Trade-off

A claim suggesting that a product is ‘green’ based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues. Paper, for example, is not necessarily environmentally-preferable just because it comes from a sustainably-harvested forest. Other important environmental issues in the paper-making process, such as greenhouse gas emissions, or chlorine use in bleaching may be equally important.

Sin of No Proof

An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by a reliable third-party certification. Common examples are facial tissues or toilet tissue products that claim various percentages of post-consumer recycled content without providing evidence.

Sin of Vagueness

A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer. ‘All-natural’ is an example. Arsenic, uranium, mercury, and formaldehyde are all naturally occurring, and poisonous. ‘All natural’ isn’t necessarily ‘green’.

Sin of Worshiping False Labels

A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.

Sin of Irrelevance

An environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products. ‘CFC-free’ is a common example, since it is a frequent claim despite the fact that CFCs are banned by law.

Sin of Lesser of Two Evils

A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. Organic cigarettes could be an example of this Sin, as might the fuel-efficient sport-utility vehicle.

Sin of Fibbing

Environmental claims that are simply false. The most common examples were products falsely claiming to be Energy Star certified or registered.

Wal-Mart Sustainable Product Index

I hope it's not greenwashing. It sounds wonderful. It can't happen soon enough. The devil will be in the details. 



*2. WAL-MART TO DEVELOP SUSTAINABLE PRODUCT INDEX*

In a move likely to further drive sustainability initiatives up consumer-product supply chains, retail giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.(Bentonville, AR) has announced plans to develop a new product index that’s designed to assess the sustainability of consumer products. “Customers want products that are more efficient, last longer, and perform better,” saidWal-Mart President and CEO Mike Duke during a meeting with 1,500 suppliers, associates, and sustainability leaders at the company’s headquarters on July 16. “And increasingly, they want information about the entire lifecycle of a
 product so that they can feel good about buying it.”

Wal-Mart will introduce the sustainability product index in three phases, beginning with a survey of the energy and climate, materials efficiency, natural resources management, and people and community policies and practices of its more than 100,000 global suppliers. In the second phase, Wal-Mart will create a consortium of universities that will collaborate with suppliers, retailers, and others in the development of a global database of product lifecycle information. The third phase will involve the development of an index translating this information into product ratings, the company said.

Excellent Definiton of Clean Technology

Clean Technology is a term that covers broad categories of clean, environmentally sustainable technologies. The Clean Tech Open lists these areas :

Clean Tech Open Defines Clean Technology

Air, Water and Waste

Entries in the Air, Water & Waste category focuses on improving resource availability, conservation and pollution control. With respect to waste, the category focuses on cradle-to-cradle approaches to reduction, reuse and recycling technologies, as well as innovative business models and approaches to materials usage.

Air examples include services, instruments and equipment related to emission control, treatment or reduction technologies. Also included are creative approaches to greenhouse gas reduction, including carbon conversion and sequestration.

Water examples include treatment, storage and monitoring, recycling and conservation technologies.

Waste examples include: waste management equipment; sorting; resource recovery processes; pollution prevention, control, and treatment technology; as well as waste reduction through innovative recycling processes and new recyclable materials, such as bio-based plastics.

Example technologies include:

• Water monitoring-on-site in-situ real-time water monitoring for pathogens
• Cooling solution
• On-site wastewater recycling-industrial and commercial applications
• Advanced water metering
• Storm-water and flood control, rainwater harvesting
• Smart irrigation
• On-site water disinfection
• Membranes for water treatment
• Advanced filtration without membranes
• Produced water (from oil exploration and drilling)
• Energy efficient water pumping
• Reverse osmosis
• Advanced filters and filtration (air or water)
• Emissions controls
• Scrubber technology
• Carbon and GHG monitoring and control
• Carbon sequestration
• Carbon Capture and storage
• Technology enablers for Carbon markets
• Reduction and remediation of VOCs
• Waste cleanup and remediation
• DI water supply
• Agricultural waste treatment
• Recycling
• Microbial water treatment
• Bio based packaging solutions
• Methane capture and storage
• Soil technology
• Natural pesticides

Energy Efficiency

The Energy Efficiency category comprises technology that can significantly reduce wasted energy (including natural gas), driving toward the common goal of saving the equivalent of "a power plant a year" (a/k/a "Negawatts").

Examples include advanced light sources and controls, smart / user-friendly energy management systems, energy-efficient water heaters and other appliances, high-efficiency industrial process systems, motors, pumps, and advanced space heating and cooling systems.

Example technologies include:

• Pumps for water / material
• Industrial process improvements
• Natural gas monitoring and control (industrial or residential)
• LED lighting
• Advanced lighting controls
• Water heating
• HVAC solutions
• Heat pumps
• Waste heat management
• Efficient heat transfer
• Utility scale natural gas controls
• Display systems for energy management
• Materials use in microelectronics manufacturing
• Deposition and sputtering processes
• Alternatives to heat intensive processes
• Cooling solutions
• Glass materials production
• Pure manufacture techniques for fuel cells

Green Building

The Green Building category focuses on reducing the environmental impact of building construction or operation through improved design or construction practices, new or innovative use of building materials, or new hardware or software applications. Technologies are applied directly to the built environment. Technologies are applied directly to the built environment. (Building energy efficiency submissions will be considered in the Energy Efficiency category).

Examples include improved site planning, water management systems, reduction of hazardous materials in building construction or operation, use of new environmentally friendly or recycled materials, systems to improve indoor environmental quality and systems for improved waste reduction or disposal.

Example technologies include:

• Insulation materials
• Cement alternatives
• Cement production techniques
• Building integrated PV (BIPV)
• Indoor air filtration systems
• Modular housing
• Disaster relief housing
• Architectural Designs for thermal management
• Office environment
• Low VOC carpeting and flooring
• Water saving toilets, showers, plumbing
• Residential heat pumps
• Recycled materials for use in building material
• Design improvements to commercial environment

Renewable Energy

The Renewable Energy category includes innovations that use, enable and accelerate the migration to renewable energy. Renewables encompass technologies that use waste streams to directly produce energy.

Examples include low-emission power sources, such as solar, biofuels, wind, wave and tidal energy and hydropower.

Example technologies include:

• Solar for energy production
• CIGS
• Thin film solar manufacture
• Concentrating solar PV
• Coatings for solar panels
• Polysilicon supply and manufacture
• Residential scale solar deployment
• Ethanol
• Biobased fuels
• Tidal energy
• Wave energy capture
• Landfill gas to energy systems
• Agricultural waste to energy systems
• Hydropower
• Turbine blade design
• Advanced fluid flow designs
• Wind power aerodynamics
• Wind power conversion efficiency

Smart Power, Green Grid and Energy Storage

The Smart Power, Green Grid and Energy Storage category encourages links between information technologies and electricity delivery that give industrial, commercial and residential consumers greater control over when and how their energy is delivered and used. It includes improvements in all forms of energy storage, from battery technology for consumer-scale products to large chemical, metal, biological or other approaches to storage of utility-scale energy, as well as methods for controlling or increasing the efficiency of energy storage or energy transmission.

Examples include wireless metering and use of real-time pricing information, intelligent sensors, batteries, fuel cells, fly-wheels, and advanced materials or systems for energy transmission, such as hardware and software controls.

Example technologies include:

• Advanced metering
• Network architecture for power management
• Cloud computing, applied to grid
• Batteries
• Novel battery chemistry
• Nickel-metal hydride improvements
• Hydrogen storage
• Li-ion cells
• Form factor improvements
• Improved cycle life for batteries
• Depth of discharge for batteries
• Solid oxide fuel cells
• Novel catalysts in batteries, fuel cells
• Advanced fuel cell membranes
• Methanol fuel cells
• PEM fuel cells
• Flywheels
• Grid scale hardware and infrastructure
• Power storage for intermittent, renewable resources
• Monitoring and deploying power generated from renewables
• Transmission efficiency
• Electrical engineering and controls for power distribution
• Novel metals and alloys for power transmission
• Superconducting power transmission
• Real-time power monitoring

Transportation

The Transportation category encompasses transportation and mobile technology applications that improve fuel efficiency, reduce air pollution, reduce oil consumption or reduce vehicle travel (not limited to automobiles). Technologies are applied directly to transportation systems or vehicles.

Examples include new vehicles and new types of transport services and infrastructure, efficient batteries, fuel cells, bio-based transportation fuels and use of information technologies.

Example technologies include:

• Fleet management hardware and software systems
• Routing and data solutions for public transportation operators
• Logistics management
• Carpooling solutions
• Hybrid motor systems
• Storage of energy specifically applied to vehicles
• Plug in hybrid vehicles
• All electric vehicles
• Fuel cell vehicles
• Biodiesel applications
• Intermodal tracking and monitoring
• NOX/SOX reductions for ocean going vessels
• Cold-ironing systems
• Diesel particulate matter filters for Locomotives
• Combustion designs
• Fuel blends
• Flex fuel engines and applications
• Drivetrain conversion kits
• Route management via GPS networks
• Exploiting GPS and location information
• Monitoring and control of driver behavior