What is greenwashing and how to avoid it? Find our top 5 tips to avoid greenwashing.

“Greenwashing” is the practice of marketing a product or a brand as being greener or more environmentally friendly than they really are.

As people are increasingly aware of their impact on the planet, many companies have seen this as a great business potential. Unfortunately many of them just try to appear eco-friendly through their image and marketing rather than through real changes. It is called “greenwashing”.

Learn how to identify greenwashing and how to avoid it. Here are a few tips:

Be cautious of products making generic claims like “100% natural” or “environmentally friendly” without information as to how or why.

Avoid products that make irrelevant claims, like “CFC-free” (CFCs were banned more than 20 years ago).

Look for a seal or certification mark from a recognized, independent third party specializing in green claims.

Look for the packaging: while a product may be green, is the packaging green as well?

Don’t be misled by pretty pictures or use of earth-friendly colors on product labels. MacDonalds or Coca-Cola might have green color on their logo, that doesn’t make them eco-friendly!

Question percentage claims, such as “This product contains 50% more recycled content.” Fifty percent more than what?

Is there a single place where I can find reliable eco-friendly brands?

If despite these tips, you still feel unsure whether to trust a brand or not, don’t worry we were in the same boat! Everything started when we were looking for a single place where we could find all the eco-friendly brands that we can trust. We didn’t find such a place, so at Easy Eco Tips, we created our eco-brand directory.

People always ask us if we have brand recommendations, and so we decided to start testing, trying brands, and recommending them if we thought they were genuinely having a positive impact on the planet.

How does the eco-brand directory work?

Very simple! It’s just a catalogue of sustainable brands, that we classified by type of product to make the search easier. You can find eco-brands for phone cases, for clothing, for cleaning products, anything you need! It’s not an online shop, we don’t sell the products ourselves. Just a catalogue with a link to every brand’s page.

For each brand, do our own detailed research, ask for samples to try their products, and check them against a set of 5 criteria that we have defined, so we can give them a rating. If a brand is on our directory, it’s because we believe this brand is better than other alternatives for the planet. It might not be perfect, but it is going in the right direction.

Sometimes, we even negotiate a special discount directly with the brand just for you 😉

Start browsing the brands by clicking here