Localwashing, a new form of Greenwashing

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* Monday, Feb 01st, 10

Localwashing Is The New Greenwashing

How Local Is “Local”?

By Jeffrey Hollender

There’s no bandwagon corporate goliaths won’t jump on with an enthusiasm geared to make us think it was their idea all along. Start a trend, found a movement, make a wave, and you’ll soon find companies of all kinds working overtime to hijack it all the way to the bank.

When environmentalism got hot and consumers wanted to devote their dollars to more sustainable goods and services, the marketplace turned green almost overnight. Suddenly every product had an environmental benefit. Yet the vast majority were simply deceptively marketed poseurs. Such products (and they’re out there in droves) are said to be “greenwashing,” and now they’ve got some competition: products and companies that claim to be “local” when they’re anything but.

This “localwashing” is a predictable response to the new localvore movement, which emphasizes the environmental and economic importance of goods and services produced by members of one’s own community and those nearby. And it’s fast becoming the new greenwashing as the world’s largest corporations attempt to co-opt consumers’ growing desire keep their money closer to home where it can boost the fortunes of the local economy and the neighbors whose ventures fuel it.

That boost is a highly effective way for us to reverse all kinds of unfortunate trends, from too-big-to-fail corporate consolidation to unsustainable industrial-scale production techniques. A study by Civic Economics found that forty five cents of every dollar spent at a locally-owned business stays in the community. At a chain store, only thirteen cents remains behind. The rest ends up in distant pockets.

With that kind of economic power now understood by growing numbers of shoppers, it’s no wonder big companies are tripping all over each other in a rush to position themselves as “local.” HSBC, for example, the fifth largest bank on Earth, now sells itself as “the world’s local bank.” International consumer products giant Unilever is running ads for its Hellmann’s brand mayonnaise with the theme “eat real, eat local.” The International Council of Shopping Centers urges us to “shop local” at our nearest chain store-filled mall. And no less a corporate behemoth than Wal-Mart, the planet’s most un-local enterprise, is exploiting the fact that it occasionally stocks a token amount of regional produce (think blueberries in Maine) to establish localvore credibility.

Our own reaction to localwashing should be to scrutinize all claims of “localness.” We must shop with our eyes wide open and make sure that we aren’t being misled into patronizing companies and buying products with no legitimate community connection. (I’d suggest boycotting companies that make these claims, writing them letters of complaint and reporting them to the Better Business Bureau as well as the Attorney General.)

To avoid this localwashing we need only a little common sense. If a product looks like it comes from a far off factory, it probably does. If it doesn’t explicitly say it’s made nearby, it probably isn’t. If a food looks out of place, it’s probably from out-of-state. If a store is so big you need a cell phone to call across it or has outlets you can count on more than one hand, the only thing local about it is probably its parking lot. Logic like this will keep our localvore efforts authentic. And that’s something we should all buy into.

About Jeffrey Hollender

Jeffrey Hollender is co-founder and Executive Chairperson of Seventh Generation, a leading natural home products company. He’s the the author of several books, including What Matters Most and Naturally Clean. He is a member and former Director of the Social Venture Network, a group of socially-conscious business executives. Hollender served as President of The Rainforest Foundation USA from 1992 to 1996, an organization created to protect the rainforest and the human rights of its indigenous peoples. He also served as a Board member and Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility.