Last week we looked at the first step in avoiding greenwashing – knowing what you want. Hopefully by now, you know what you want to achieve, and the specific ways in which you want to be more sustainable.

The next step is knowing what you need to know.

It has been pretty challenging putting together this blog series in a way that is relevant, and accessible, and covers everything you need to know about greenwashing and how to avoid it. I can’t simplify or boil it down too much because the truth is, in order to avoid greenwashing, we need to know our stuff. We all need to build our knowledge and understanding base so that we are equipped to judge, for ourselves, whether what a product claims about itself is likely to be true or false.

One way to do this is to work through the lifecycle of a product, identifying the measurables along the way, which will tell you just how eco-friendly it really is. These measurables include what a product (and their packaging) is made of, sourcing, production, transportation, use and end of life considerations. How materials end up where they are supposed to is also an important part of this process and we’ll cover that in more depth later in this series.

Now, I realise this seems a lot to cover, and have a knowledge base for, and it is. The good news is that you don’t have to know all of this right now (I’m not sure anyone knows it all), you just need to have the right questions to ask so you can figure the rest out bit by bit.

To help with this I have broken down potential sustainability measurables into 4 categories. This should make the above list a bit easier to digest.

Environmental impact

Obviously our modern products and practices have an impact on our planet and it’s incredible ecosystems. There are many potential environmental issues and terms within this category, but what they come down to is the ways in which we harm and pollute, our air, water, soil and land.

I am not an environmental scientist, so I will hand you over to one! This is a TED talk given by Johan Rockström back in 2010. It is super informative (with some great visuals) and provides a great foundation in the many ways in which we, as humans, have impacted our environment to date.

Materials

Once we are aware of what’s at stake and the impact products can have on the planet, we can look at the measurables within our immediate control. What materials are the things we are daily investing in, using and discarding, made of?

Sourcing

A very large category that includes many important sustainability measures like: Where do materials come from? Are they grown and harvested (potentially renewable)? Are they mined out the earth (non-renewable)? What processes are used in their manufacturing (water, land & chemical use / pollution)? How are they transported to us (carbon footprint)? etc. etc.

End of life

And finally, the end of the process where we need to consider how products are discarded, where they end up, and the resulting impact on the environment up until the end of their existence (or their forever impact if they do not have an end).

When it comes to avoiding greenwashing, we can use these categories to assess for ourselves just how sustainable a product is. They help give us the information we need, and /or the topics we should research. It’s probably best to go through them in this order:

• Materials (What is it made of?)

• Sourcing (Where has it come from and what processes have been used along the way?)

• End of life (Where will it end up?)

• Environmental Impact (In what ways do any of the above harm the environment?)

Why not use this phrase when shopping as a way to remember what sustainability measurables you’re assessing:

“Mmmm let’s S E E”

Materials Sourcing End of Life Environmental Impact

A real life example

Say I am in a shop looking for a more sustainable hair clip. I would pick up an eco-friendly looking alternative and go through the categories one by one, using what I know (and identifying what I would need to find out) to assess just how eco-friendly this product is.

Firstly, I would ask, “what is this hair product made of?”. It looks like the clip is on cardboard, fastened with a plastic tie and the clip itself is made from plant-based material & a metal spring. When I turn over this product the information on the back helpfully confirms (this will not always be the case) the materials:

• Made from biodegradable plant-based material, excluding metal spring. Not suitable for home composting.

• Card made from recycled board and vegetable ink.

• Secured with PP cable tie.

Now that I have the materials identified I move on to questions around sourcing. Starting with the already identified measurables, the materials, and then tracing back through the supply chain is probably going to be easiest.

However, when I look at the materials used and add the only sourcing information written on the product, “Made in China” I realised that it would be pretty difficult to find any more information on where all the materials were sourced. That aside I do know that the cardboard was made using recycled board and the PP (Polypropylene) cable tie from fossil fuels.

Moving on to End of Life considerations. The cardboard packaging I can put in my recycling at home, or even rip up and add to my compost as the inks used are vegetable based. The cable tie & metal spring would need to go in general waste and end up in landfill. The clip itself provides a conundrum as it says, ‘not suitable for home composting’, but doesn’t offer an alternative disposal method.

As I have done a bit of research into biodegradable plastics (which is what this is even though it never uses the word plastic) I know that they need specific conditions in order to breakdown safely, and since the packaging gives no indication to what these are, I would probably have to throw it in general waste along with the tie and spring. So in the end the only part of this product that would be recycled is the cardboard packaging. Everything else is going to end up in landfill.

As you can tell it’s already not looking too good on the sustainability front but I will use the last category to confirm what we have already assessed from the information so far.

Environmental Impact of “All round Eco” Octopus claw grip

• Cardboard recycled or composted is a general win.

• All other materials ending up in landfill a huge loss. Both the plastic and the plant based plastic are likely to never breakdown and at the very least just break up into smaller pollutants.

• Having been made in China and transported to the UK I can’t know (unless I do extensive research into this specific company) what impact the material sources, production and transportation of the product has had on the environment.

So, all in all, not a very eco-friendly product.

I know this has been an exhaustive example, but I hope this shows how complex sustainability is, especially when compared with the simplicity of printing “eco” on packaging.

Wouldn’t it be great if there were genuine third party certifications also printed on packaging?

Well, they do exist! Next week we will dive into the world of certifications and other symbols on packaging that can help us verify how eco-friendly a product is. For now, I leave will you to ponder just how eco-friendly that product is.

“Mmmm let’s S E E…”