environmentally friendly all-natural
eco-safe non-toxic green
what do all these words have in common
they're
the past few years have seen a huge boom
in searches for environmentally friendly
products and services which on the one
hand is amazing because it means
individuals care more than ever about
the planet but as a result it's led to a
massive industry and the rise of green
marketing or green washing some of which
is specifically designed to trick
consumers in order to simply sell more
products but no more it's time to call
them out with
studies over the last 10 years have
found that 90 of products in big box
retailers throughout canada the us
australia and the uk fall into one of
these seven categories which might be
catching your attention when you're
shopping but not exactly living up to
the standards you hope they are first up
we have
this is when a company highlights the
importance of fixing one environmental
issue while potentially hiding a more
concerning one let's take nestle for
example oh nestle the company that takes
water from my hometown's aquifer wraps
it in plastic and sells it around the
world
the company that took spring water 120
miles from flint michigan for their
water bottles while michigan was
suffering a major lead contamination
water crisis how cute and as one of the
world's largest water bottle
manufacturers you can imagine they're
also one of the largest global polluters
of single-use plastic wow
in fact a 2017 beach cleanup in the
philippines found nestle products the
most common brand of litter now nestle
in the meantime has made a pledge that
by 2025 100 of their packaging will be
recyclable and reusable amazing
finally one of the world's largest
polluters of single-use plastic is
taking a stand
except they're not really of the 20 000
water bottles bought globally every
minute less than half of those are
recycled which means that more than 10
000 bottles bought every minute end up
in a landfill or the ocean and take
about
hundreds of years to completely degrade
and even if nestle does hit that fully
recyclable target it's worth noting that
the world literally does not have the
infrastructure in place to recycle all
these bottles most recently in 2018
china's national sword policy banned the
import of most plastics which means that
millions of recycled materials from the
us are simply becoming waste companies
like nestle market one angle like
recyclability without acknowledging or
taking responsibility for the fact that
there currently is no way to recycle all
these products up next
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which is when organizations make
environmental claims that they have no
evidence for and happens all the time
let's take nest labs as an example one
of the biggest producers of thermostats
which eventually became google nest in
2013 nest labs claimed that nest
thermostats were the most
environmentally friendly product in
comparison to their competitors which is
great except for the fact that they had
no proof for this claim and were later
forced to remove it when they were
investigated and this is the tough part
about companies making false claims
because we often don't know as consumers
until it's too late a lot of these
companies seem to operate on ask for
forgiveness not permission if a company
does make a claim the best we can do is
verify that it's backed by some
government body or reputable
organization which is trash pun intended
because it puts all the onus on the
consumer to research every single
product they buy
[Music]
this is where all the cute new
catchphrases fall under like green or
eco-friendly in canada greenwashing is
technically illegal for example the term
all-natural must not a include added
vitamins minerals nutrients artificial
flavors or food additives b have
anything removed other than water c go
through any processes that significantly
alter the original physical chemical or
biological state which sounds good on
paper except there's a loophole where
companies can stay made with natural
flavors if just one of the flavors they
mention is natural while every other
ingredient in their product is
artificial or synthetic and that's at
least partially regulated here meanwhile
words like environmentally friendly or
ethical are much more vague and
meaningless and in many parts of the
world no legal ramifications actually
exist so if a company isn't explaining
exactly how they're more environmentally
friendly or what they're comparing it to
because remember everything we make has
an environmental cost they're likely
just using words to sell a product to
you oh but the soft blue and green
packaging with pictures of nature and
look at the little birdian and the cute
bears it must be environmentally
friendly nope not likely while the ftc
in america has had green guides for
businesses since 1992 they're not
legally binding though some states like
california now do have eco-labeling laws
to protect consumers similarly the uk
doesn't have specific anti-green washing
laws but misleading claims can fall
under consumer protection laws packaging
that focuses on what's not in the
product can often be a red flag as it's
often used to distract you from the
actual ingredient list while in
cosmetics they often focus on one
specific natural ingredient to give the
illusion that the other ingredients are
not harmful to you or the planet the sin
of irrelevance is when an environmental
claim is not helpful or relevant for
example chlorofluorocarbon or cfcs which
can be used as refrigerants are banned
in
197 countries across the world because
of their environmental impact and yet
companies still find the need to
emphasize that products are cfc free in
an attempt to appear as if they're
taking responsibility for protecting the
environment in reality cfc isn't present
in their product because it's illegal
and that's a good thing the cfc ban
helped protect the ozone and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions drastically in
the past two decades but with hfc now
replacing cfc there is a risk that it's
not regulated enough and could do
similar damage and that's why it's still
important that we put research and
regulations around alternative solutions
as well and it's frustrating to see
companies hijacking the ignorance of
consumers just so they can have a
marketing talking point that is
ultimately the bare minimum legally
when a slightly less harmful product is
created in an environmentally harmful
field it's often touted very loudly for
example when you see cars labeled as
more fuel efficient that's great on the
one hand but the cars are still adding
significantly to co2 emissions worldwide
in 2019 transportation accounted for 29
of us greenhouse gas emissions
alternatives are awesome but they can
still be harmful to the environment
which is why it's important to remember
that sometimes reducing or completely
minimizing our use of services and
products is actually the most impactful
thing we can do
as the name suggests is outright false
claims by corporations vehicle
manufacturers have been the most recent
culprits in 2015 the environmental
protection agency found that volkswagen
used emission cheating software when
external testing took place in their
facilities to ensure that diesel
vehicles emitted less gas and appeared
cleaner than other vehicles but
volkswagen isn't alone mercedes
chevrolet and ford have also been found
guilty of using emissions cheating
software to bypass inspections and this
is where we have to demand regulations
and way stricter penalties for companies
that make these kind of fake claims it's
hard enough to find environmental
alternatives without the added layer of
companies straight up lying to our faces
and then really only facing a slap on
the wrist or a minor fine ow we promise
not to repeat our decade long scan on
consumers ever again we swear nobody in
the company knew the sin of worshipping
false labels this is related to the
hundreds of third-party certification
and claims given to products with no
real guarantee the claims are true of
course there are some labels that are
audited and more legitimate than others
but as an example in one research study
a product of paper towels had a
certification that said fights global
warming there needs to be a huge
emphasis on reputation for third party
verification because a lot of these
third-party organizations claim they'll
verify but don't do often enough and as
a consumer how are we supposed to
understand the legitimacy of every
single label that could possibly be
slapped on a product
we can't so what can you do okay so this
was a law and it might sound a little
doom and gloom sorry about that add
these sins on top of the fact that we
hear about cotton tote bags creating
less waste but more co2 than plastic
bags or electric vehicles only being
more environmentally friendly when the
local grid they're on is also using
renewable energy and not just creating
that electricity from fossil fuels or
the fact that the lithium mining of
their batteries is related to the
destruction of freshwater supplies and
fish or how ride-sharing apps claimed to
be part of the solution by streamlining
transportation but only added more
vehicle miles than ever
it could sometimes feel like there's no
hope and no matter what we do we lose
not to mention straws getting so much
attention but obviously there are
genuine major efforts by some
corporations and brands to not only
minimize their impact but actually
create more sustainable products so how
do we know what to support the shitty
part of the answer is to be more
informed yourself which i know is not
scalable and puts the onus on you
instead of the corporations who should
be bearing the responsibility but if
it's something you care about now it's a
place to start long term we need to
engage socially and politically i know
for some people the word regulation
might make you cringe especially our
american followers for some reason but
it works remember it's regulation that
made cigarette companies admit and
openly show that they're bad for your
health even when they swore up and down
they weren't it was the montreal
protocol that helped establish an
international treaty to help protect the
ozone layer this is what projections
looked like with and without the
protocol the world's largest
manufacturer of tissue paper kimberly
clark destroyed mass amounts of boreal
forest in canada which was home to
almost a million indigenous people in
response the clear-cut campaign began
and in 2011 a policy change took place
that forced the company to purchase pulp
outside the boreal forest now it must be
approved by the forest stewardship
council which is a third party
organization that validates safe
environments the keystone pipeline xl is
one of the biggest climate change
stories of the past decade concern about
damage to indigenous lands oil spills
damaging the environment and the
drilling of oil sands led to the state
department in the u.s creating a report
that stated the environment was at
little risk for harm but the strange
part about this report was that the
authors had their names removed and when
the names were finally revealed it was
shown that a lot of these members were
responsible for approving other
pipelines this conflict of interest was
hidden to prove that the pipeline had
little to no risk in reality it was very
dangerous for the environment the
protests against the pipeline got so big
in 2011 there was a span of two weeks in
front of the white house where 1
253 arrests were made where are we with
the pipeline today the great news is
after a decade-long fight transcanada
has cancelled the pipeline project it
can be a slog and take a long time but
when we stand up to corporations and the
government to protect the environment
they have to listen these companies
aren't willingly going to sacrifice
their profits for the betterment of
humanity so we need to make them and
that starts by supporting or joining
efforts or movements to impact our laws
in effort to protect the environment i
hope this video while calling out the
eco fakes of the world can also provide
a little bit of hope yes there will
always be intentional scam artists but
knowing that every single day more
individuals are caring about the
environment taking a stand in their own
life and making their voice be heard
gives me a lot of hope in the long run
we've seen a lot of great examples of
what happens when people stand up and i
think we're going to see a lot more
speaking of change i want to thank
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next time for some more science peace