clipped from: www.twincities.com   

Everywhere you go these days, you're swamped with green.

Relentless advertising pushes chemical-free cleaning services, bamboo towels, energy-saving light bulbs, flooring cut from environmentally sustainable forests. The Watchdog has gotten e-mails recommending a "greenest of the green" hotel, a college guide with "green ratings" and products to "green-ify" her home, including the $159 Marmalade Lounge Cat Bed.

There aren't many independent bodies out there to say this is better or worse
Don't expect the government to help you out
As a testament to the explosion of green gear, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing recently went into six big-box stores and found 1,018 consumer products bearing 1,753 environmental claims
the Six Sins of Greenwashing:
  • A claim about a product that is true but used to paint a greener picture than the product as a whole deserves;

  • A lack of proof of a product's claim;

  • Vagueness, such as using the word "natural" when lots of nasty things, such as mercury, are natural;