Marketing Firm Announces Greenwashing Index

By: GreenBiz.com

BALI, Indonesia, Dec. 12, 2007 -- A social marketing firm plans to rank the best and worst examples of green marketing in the new EnviroMedia Greenwashing Index to be released next month.

EnviroMedia announced the index at the U.N. Climate Change Conference this week, where it conducted a survey about corporate greenwashing.

The survey found that nine out of 10 delegated believe that some companies are "advertising products and services with environmental claims that could be considered false, unsubstantiated and/or unethical."

"It would not have been much of a surprise to see that kind of response from American or EU constituents, but we were really surprised to see that strong a response from the global community, including many developing countries," said EnviroMedia President Kevin Tuerff in a statement.

For its greenwashing index, the company is asking the public about to submit examples of good and bad green marketing in TV, print or online advertisements.

The results will be unveiled Jan. 7, 2008, the day before the Federal Trade Commission is scheduled to hold a forum as part of its review of green marketing claims.

The announcement of the greenwashing index comes less than a month after environmental marketing firm TerraChoice released a report titled the "Six Sins of Greenwashing," which found that the vast majority of marketing claims aren't true.