May, 2009

How to Fight Greenwashing

Simple: make it a non-issue by understanding green basics.

By John Wagner

The Ritz-Carlton chain counts among its properties many hotels that most of us couldn’t afford without the help of PowerBall. When you drop a five spot on a luxury room, it better have more than just nice fluffy towels. The service had better be top-shelf. And how does Ritz-Carlton train its staff?

They start by giving them a principle by which all actions should be judged. It goes like this: “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.” When faced with a service decision, that’s the litmus test to determine the most appropriate action.

What does that have to with green washing?

Well, there’s a fair amount of confusion about green building (check out the cover story in this issue). The vast majority of it is created by product claims that are not based in commonsense principles about green building. And these claims, along with a proliferation of third-party labels—many of them admirable efforts—make green building far more complicated than it needs to be.

Aren’t there common sense green principles that we can refer to, like the Ritz-Carlton motto, that will give us a reality check in the face of the esoteric, academic distinctions, and wild claims about green products?

Yes, there are.

In previous writing in this magazine, and in my live seminars, I always point to five basic tenets of green building. No matter what label a product carries, a product is green if it is accordance with these principles. They don’t always apply, but mostly they do. A product is green if it:

1. Improves indoor air quality.
2. Uses recycled/recycable materials
3. Reduces water consumption
4. Is sustainably harvested
5. Reduces fuel consumption (carbon footprint) during the manufacture, delivery, installation, and use.

So, whether a product is labeled or not, let’s put this “Ritz-Carlton” approach to the test.

TRUSSES. Are they green? Yes, on two or three counts. They are made with secondary- demand lumber, the material is recyclable, and certain trusses (raised-heel trusses) contribute to making the structure very energy efficient. So, sell trusses as green products with confidence. Whether they are labeled green or not, you just developed the critical judgment needed to determine the green qualities of a product…with or without a green label.

INSULATION. Green? With or without a green label, the answer is yes, because it reduces a home’s carbon footprint. It’s especially green if it doesn’t have formaldehyde, or has formaldehyde that’s thirdparty certified not to emit at harmful levels, thereby improving indoor air quality.

You see, you don’t even have to mess with greenwashing if you develop the critical judgment and knowledge of basic green principles. When you do that, you’ll find that green building is really a rather old-fashioned approach to building. It produces tight, well-vented, low-maintenance structures that don’t use lots of fuel to heat and cool themselves, and use nontoxic products and materials that don’t permanently deplete their sources when harvested.

It really is that simple.

Greenwashing? That’s nothing more than the marketing acrobatics that goes on high above where the real work takes place: our yards and our customers’ jobsites. And it’s very likely that the green tenets listed above were already guiding the building practices and product purchases of your better customers long before the USGBC or NAHB started going green.

The good things that the third-party rating agencies have brought to the industry are verification and documentation systems that serve as evidence that our builder customers can use to pass along in the sales process. With that evidence, the builder can achieve a premium return on the investment he’s made in green homes, so he doesn’t get caught in the square-footpricing trap that stacks up premium green homes against non-green homes that are comparable only in their square footage and not their quality.

The award-winning author of many articles and books—and a sought-after green trainer and keynote speaker for dealer events— JOHN D. WAGNER is the Green Editor for LBM Journal and the content manager for the Certified Green Dealer Program. Contact John: John.Wagner@LBMJournal.com. Or visit: www.JohnDWagner.com