Housing has been 'greenwashed'

Walk through any home-remodeling expo these days, and you could be forgiven for thinking that the entire industry has gone mad for green.

Everything from roofing shingles to basement wall-sealants seem to bear some kind of "eco" stamp lately, testament to manufacturers' determination to appeal to consumers' apparently heightened appreciation for sustainability, energy conservation and plain old earth-friendliness.

"If you actually took all the marketing claims at face value, then the environment should be in great shape," says Henning Bloech. "Everything is 'green.' "

Bloech spends a great deal of time contemplating such claims. He's the executive director of the GreenGuard Environmental Institute, an Atlanta-based organization that, among other things, independently tests chemical emissions of homebuilding products to certify that they meet indoor air-quality standards.

His group is one of a relative handful of so called "third-party certifiers" that set standards and verify manufacturers' claims of their products' environmental attributes. Bloech says that though many companies have earnestly endeavored to earn their eco merit badges, many others are just pretending -- making marketing claims that have become known as "greenwashing."

"It's extremely widespread," Bloech says. "It's everywhere."

And greenwashing manifests itself in myriad ways, experts say. TerraChoice, an Ottawa-based marketing company that describes itself as specializing in sustainable products, in 2009 tested 2,219 products in various categories that made about 5,000 "green" claims; it found that only 25 were not guilty of at least one of its "seven sins of greenwashing," which include making claims that are vague, lack proof, or are outright misrepresentations, among others.

"There is just a lack of standards on how to define what is green," agrees Christopher Nelson, director of corporate development for UL Environment, a recently launched arm of Underwriters Laboratories that will set environmental standards and vet environmental claims for manufacturers' products.

One of ULE's two programs validates environmental claims, he said. ...CONTINUED

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