Americans duped by misleading greenwash

A recent survey has found that whilst Americans think about the environment when making purchasing decisions, many of them misunderstand the environmental messages on product packaging.

In the survey 39% of US citizens said that they think about the environment when choosing the products that they buy.

However, almost half those surveyed had erroneous beliefs about the environmental impact of products that they buy.

48% of respondents to the 2008 Green Gap Survey believed that a product marked ‘green’ or ‘environmentally friendly’ is beneficial to the environment.

Just 22% of respondents correctly observed that these labels describe products that do less harm to the environment that previous or competitor’s versions.

The survey was conducted by the Boston College Centre for Corporate Citizenship. Executive director of the college, Bradley Googins, said that “Americans are primed to trust companies.” The leads to the need for a third-party “gatekeeper” to ensure that the messages given by companies are accurate.

47% of respondents said that they trust companies to tell them the truth in environmental messaging, whilst 45% said that they believe companies give trustworthy information about their impact on the environment.