Hey, It’s Not Easy Being Green : Consumers: What do you do when you find ‘natural’ isn’t and ‘biodegradable’ doesn’t?
So you bought the green “degradable” trash bag only to hear on the evening news that it isn’t, and that the company has been sued for false advertising?
You bought the “environment-friendly” aerosol can only to read that all aerosols damage the environment?
And you bought a dozen eggs in a “recyclable” Styrofoam carton only to discover that your community recyclers don’t accept polystyrene in any form?
Forget it, you mutter, environmental shopping is nothing but a lot of green hype.
That prospect troubles Joel Makower. With polls showing American shoppers identifying themselves in record numbers as “green consumers” and marketers responding with a confusing glut of “green products,” Makower foresees a giant disillusionment building for both.
“I’m worried about the oat-branning of the environmental movement,” he frets. “People get all excited about a magic-bullet cure, then have the rug pulled out from under them.”
Makower, a Washington-based business and consumer writer, is an authority on “green consumerism”--shopping with the environment in mind. His 1990 book, “The Green Consumer,” has sold more than 100,000 copies and has become a staple on the ecology reference shelf. He publishes the monthly Green Consumer Letter, lectures frequently and now has written “The Green Consumer Supermarket Guide” (Penguin: $6.95).
Makower hopes the new book--written, like its predecessor, with John Elkington and Julia Hailes--will help solidify the fledging green consumer movement that he sees as the key to mainstream environmental reform.
“I know it will only make a dent in our environmental problems,” he said during a telephone interview. “But by introducing green thinking to grocery shopping--that common bond we share--we make it part of everyday life. But I worry that we’re in serious risk of frustrating, alienating and isolating consumers before it even gets going.”
Carl Frankel, editor of Green MarketAlert, in Bethlehem, Conn., agrees. “It’s absolutely a legitimate concern,” says Frankel, who tracks the national effect of green consumerism. “Environmental marketing is an area that’s very much in evolution. There’s clearly the danger of a backlash, and I think the next year is going to be critical.”
As Makower views it, the problem is the American instinct for quick fixes. Environmental shopping got a big push from Earth Day ’90 and, a year later, it hasn’t faded. American shoppers continue to indicate, in both opinion polls and actual purchasing decisions, that they want to buy environmentally sound products.
The question is how.
Makower says Americans expect too much:
“We’re all looking for the perfectly green product. We want the car that gets the highest possible gas mileage, contains no Freon in the cooling system, is assembled from the largest possible amount of recycled and recyclable materials, has a permanent oil filter and, of course, at the back end, literally, gives off minimal pollutants.
“The problem is we’re not finding these things, or if we do find them, people tell us we are mistaken.”
So many green products surfaced over the last 15 months that Minnesota Atty. Gen. Hubert Humphrey III called it a “tidal wave” when he organized a task force of 10 state attorneys general last year to attack the problem of well-intentioned consumers being hoodwinked by environmental claims that were unsubstantiated, misleading or outright lies.
“It was chaos,” he says.
The months since have seen a jumble of task-force hearings, “green reports,” educational forums for advertisers and businesses, and federal and state litigation. With regulatory interest now shown at both the Federal Trade Commission and the Environmental Protection Agency, Humphrey sees progress being made toward specific and substantive federal marketing guidelines.
Makower, 39, a Berkeley journalism graduate who specializes in interpreting complex subjects for general readers, has watched this from the sidelines. His Tilden Press, a four-person company on the third floor of a townhouse overlooking Washington’s DuPont Circle, produces books and newsletters. Makower says he stays current by “talking constantly to environmental and business groups and reading everything I can.”
Representing neither businesses nor environmentalists, he looks for common ground where change can take place.
“On both sides, people are receptive--in fact, relieved--to find they don’t have to do everything right,” he says. “There’s not such a thing as a perfectly green product. And they are confused. I talk to consumers all the time. I give speeches. People call me. I get letters saying, ‘Help! We’re having a hard time!’ ”
He has just left on a national tour to promote the new book that he hopes will provide a guide through the green jungle.
What makes a product green? Lacking a scientific definition, Makower’s book offers these criteria:
* Is safe for people and animals.
* Causes minimal damage to the environment during manufacture, use and disposal.
* Does not consume a disproportionate amount of energy or other resources during its manufacture, use or disposal.
* Does not cause unnecessary waste, either from excessive packaging or short-use life.
* Does not cause unnecessary cruelty to animals; does not use materials derived from threatened species.
* And, ideally, should not cost more than its “non-green” counterpart.
Clearly, nothing fits all these categories, and Makower points out that the very existence of any product results in some environmental impact.
Still, he says, there are “goods” and “bads” on every supermarket shelf, and a major section of his book rates hundreds of specific products in 10 food categories, from beverages to vegetables, and in eight non-food categories, from air fresheners to personal-care products.
He acknowledges the difficulty of setting standards in a field where thousands of products are constantly changing and where the science and technology are still evolving.
“We tried to rate every product on three components,” Makower says, “contents, packaging and the manufacturer. Of the thousands of products we looked at, there were very, very few that rated highly in all three--Arm & Hammer Baking Soda is the only one I can think of right now.”
The book also rates major supermarket chains in 12 green categories, including internal recycling, shopping bags and shelf labeling.
The book’s Action Guide lists addresses of major manufacturers of supermarket products. Consumer letters have lots of clout, says Makower:
“We hear the same thing from corporate executives, legislators, supermarket owners, and just about anyone else who’s ‘in charge.’ It only takes a few letters before they’ll begin to pay attention.”
He predicts that as manufacturers retool, green choices will be increasingly available whether consumers seek them or not.
In the meantime, he says, “Don’t try to be a perfect green shopper: You’ll make yourself crazy in the process--and everyone around you, too.
Instead he urges a kind of “green-think” patience.
Shoppers, he notes, are programmed with criteria--whether conscious or unconscious--that come into play as they push the cart down supermarket aisles. Those criteria might include nutrition, price, quality, brand names, product loyalty, color or design and personal taste.
“What I’m asking people to do is add another criterion: the ‘E-factor.’ And you’ll find that environmental consideration will come into play,” he says. “You compare a product packaged in glass, which you can recycle, with one packaged in plastic, which you can’t recycle. You choose glass. These are not green products per se, but green approaches. One small step at a time.”
Green behavior is a slow process for everyone, he says: “None of us learn to shop overnight. It’s a gradual process we learn as we grow and mature, and learning how to view our purchases through a green lens requires a similar evolution.”
Makower offers a classic example of his green pragmatism:
“I think the squeezable ketchup bottle is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th Century. The problem: It’s made of seven layers of plastics and adhesives that can’t be recycled and are guaranteed to live forever in the landfill. The solution: When it’s empty, don’t throw it away. Buy the biggest glass bottle of ketchup you can find and refill the plastic bottle.
“Now you can have your ketchup and squeeze it, too.”
