The #1 Mistake You Make When Shopping Eco-Friendly
We women have tons of consumer power when it comes to demanding safe products, so let’s put our influence to good use.
Companies pay attention to our shopping patterns!
If we demand safe products and shop with brands who value and advance environmental, health, and social justice issues, we can have tremendous influence in the marketplace.
#1 Mistake
However, there is one major pitfall that most of us make when starting our journey of finding safer products, and that’s what I want to help you avoid today.
In a 2010 study, TerraChoice investigated the claims of 4,744 “green” products carried in stores across the U.S. and Canada, finding that more than 95% of these products were guilty of greenwashing. I’m going to repeat that - 95% of green products were guilt of greenwashing!
Greenwashing is a deceitful marketing practice where companies claim things that are untrue or misleading, in short.
Popular Examples of Greenwashing
Advertising “sustainably sourced” cocoa beans that come from farms using child and slave labor (hello, Nestle!)
“Dieselgate” scandal caused by Volkswagen for touting low emissions of a car as a feature and then cheating car emissions tests to “reach it”.
Any coffee pod that claims to be safer for the environment, such as the compostable coffee pods that can’t be home composted. (These have to be sent to industrial composting facilities, and most homes don’t have access to these.)
Labeling diapers organic when they may only have a small piece of organic on the outside of the diaper. Huggies got in trouble for this years ago!
Or meat mega-giant Tyson, who got busted for false claims about antibiotic-free chickens
With most products (a whopping 95%) guilty of lying and manipulating consumers, it’s difficult to know which companies and products you can trust. For the conscious consumer, this can lead to a huge amount of time researching brands, labels, and ingredients to find something safe and healthy.
Shop Smarter
Be smarter about where you spend your time and money. From a health standpoint, best to focus on what you are putting IN your body and ON your body. By switching to items that are safer for you and the planet, you are doing so much for your health, like your immune system, endocrine system, metabolism, skin, hormonal health.
I created two resources you’ll love. First, download this cheat sheet that simplifies label reading for you. Second, I’ve done the research for you! Get my list of favorite brands and products here.
Have you ever found yourself staring at some product you spent too much on and it’s either not as clean as you thought or doesn’t work well? I’d love to hear about it in the comments.