Arm & Hammer is selling fabric softener sheets that it
says are "more sensible for the environment." Gillette makes cans of
shaving gel that carry a little icon of a globe and promise "no CFCs."
Even giant Wal-Mart has an "Earth friendly" section of its Web site,
offering organic cotton clothing, solar garden lights and
energy-efficient appliances.

As Earth Day 2008 arrives on Tuesday, American consumers face a
renewed outpouring of environmental marketing claims - boasts by
companies that their products are everything from "100 percent natural"
to "recyclable," "eco-friendly," "sustainable," "biodegradable," or
just plain "green."

Along with these claims has come a new wave of environmental seals
and certifications aimed at helping consumers sort the real from the
hype.

Some of these environmental seals of approval - such as the U.S.
government's "organic" label - are well-known and meaningful. But other
green seals of approval are less helpful. Some cover only a few narrow
criteria, without addressing other key environmental points. Others
have been developed by industry groups with a vested interest in
boosting their sales. In some product categories, there are even
competing green standards put forward by different organizations.

The result? It can be almost as confusing to sort out the different
green seals of approval as it is to sort out green product claims.

"It's kind of a wild, wild West out there, with this big jump to get
on the green bandwagon," said Urvashi Rangan, a senior scientist with
Consumer Reports.

"There should be a big caution to consumers: Don't base your
purchasing decision on some green dot unless you know what that green
dot really means," said Scot Case, vice president of TerraChoice
Environmental Marketing.

Growing sector

This isn't America's first flood of environmental marketing. In the
1980s, companies were making so many misleading and confusing
environmental claims that the Federal Trade Commission drafted a set of
green marketing guidelines that were released in 1992.

Among other things, the FTC wrote that green claims should be
specific - for instance, stating clearly whether the word "recycled" on
a box of paper cups applies to the cups themselves or just their box.

But the FTC did not do much to enforce its own guidelines, according
to Case. And consumer and corporate interest in green products waned -
until former Vice President Al Gore's documentary "An Inconvenient
Truth" drew attention to the threat of climate change in 2006 and
sparked a new wave of environmentalism.

Consumer spending on natural foods, vitamins, body care and cleaning
products grew by 28 percent to $22 billion between 2004 and 2006,
according to Mintel, a market research group based in Chicago.

Companies rushed to publicize the green aspects of their existing
wares or to launch new green items. The number of new consumer product
launches tracked by Mintel that involved green claims shot up from five
in 2002 to 328 in 2007.

TerraChoice, Case's company, tried to gauge the reliability of all
these claims last November with a survey of about a thousand consumer
products that made a total of 1,753 environmental statements.

The good news was that very few of the products - less than 1 percent - made outright lies about their environmental benefits.

The bad news was that nearly all the products committed more subtle forms of what TerraChoice called "greenwashing."

Some products claimed to be green based on one attribute, such as
recycled packaging, without addressing other environmental problems
such as toxic ingredients.

Others made claims that were so vague as to be meaningless.

Products touting themselves as natural were a particular problem
since, unlike the term "organic," there is no government definition of
the term "natural" outside of meat and poultry.

"We found some 'natural' products that were petroleum based," Case
said. "I guess they consider petroleum a natural product. ...
Personally, I think the term natural has been so watered down it may
never have any meaning again."

"Sustainable" is an even newer marketing buzz word that doesn't have a hard and fast meaning.

"There are so many components to sustainability - protecting the
environment, water resources, social responsibility and being a good
neighbor, and having good quality and safety," said Linda Brown,
executive vice president of Scientific Certification Systems, an
Emeryville company that certifies whether products meet particular
standards.

"Right now, because there is no standard, people can pick any aspect
they want," Brown said, "and consumers don't really know what it means."

No dominant standard

Faced with this thicket of confusing claims, many consumers might
welcome an environmental equivalent of the Good Housekeeping seal of
approval, a well-known endorsement of consumer products provided by the
magazine of the same name since 1909.

But that's easier said than done. There are currently dozens of separate environmental seals and certification.

Some address narrow single issues, such as the federal government's
Energy Star seal for energy-efficient appliances or the non-profit
Forest Stewardship Council's seal for sustainably harvested wood.

But those two are just the tip of the iceberg of single-issue seals.
For instance, a group called the Sustainable Forestry Initiative -
started by the paper and timber industry - offers its own certification
of wood products that is a rival to the FSC standard.

Meanwhile, other single-issue seals focus on issues as diverse as
animal welfare, indoor air quality, pesticide residues,
biodegradability, sustainable fisheries and sustainably grown flowers.

Then there are seals based on a number of environmental criteria.
The best known multi-issue seal is probably the U.S. Green Building
Council's LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design)
standard.

The LEED seal is awarded to buildings based on a variety of criteria
ranging from energy efficiency to use of nontoxic materials. Nearly 10
percent of new commercial construction projects are now applying for
LEED certification, and the council recently launched a program to
certify residential construction, too.

Two other multi-issue certification programs are EcoLogo, a
certification with roots in the Canadian government but currently
managed by an environmental marketing firm, and Green Seal, an
independent, nonprofit certification organization. They both have set
independent environmental standards for items such as paints and
cleaning products since the late 1980s.

But neither of those seals are exactly household words. So many
companies don't see the point of spending time and money to get
certified by Green Seal or EcoLogo.

Meanwhile, some individual companies are creating their own seals that have the potential to confuse shoppers even further.

SC Johnson announced earlier this year that it is adding a Greenlist
logo to bottles of Windex. To average consumers, Greenlist might look
like an independent third-party seal of approval - but it is an
internal environmental protocol developed by SC Johnson itself.

Environmentalists have praised SC Johnson for using its Greenlist
protocol over the past decade to reduce the number of potentially
harmful chemicals in its products. But they said that displaying the
logo without explanation could be misleading to consumers.

"Why not be Green Seal certified?" said Deborah Moore of the Green
Schools Initiative, a Berkeley nonprofit that helps schools make
environmental purchasing decisions. "There is a certification out there
and hundreds of products have it."

An SC Johnson spokeswoman denied trying to confuse consumers. She
said the company had considered a third-party seal but found the
application process could be overly bureaucratic. "We look at those
seals and respect them, but in the case of Windex it didn't make
sense," said Kelly Semrau, vice president of global communications.

Retailers respond

Meanwhile, some retailers have also started getting into the act by
trying to identify environmentally preferable products for their
customers.

Home Depot launched an Eco Options seal for some of the products it
carries last year. And last month Whole Foods Market created a category
of Premium Body Care products that meet a higher standard than the
other items they carry. For instance, the Premium products avoid about
250 ingredients that have been criticized as potentially harmful by
health and environmental activists.

"We were getting feedback from consumers saying, 'We don't know what
'natural' is,' " said Jody Villecco, quality standards coordinator for
the Whole Foods chain. "We looked at other standards, and there was
really no agreement. So we decided that, as a retailer, we were in a
quick and objective position to get this done."

Just slightly behind Whole Foods, the natural products industry is
currently drafting its own definition of natural cosmetics and body
care items. Then it will issue seals to products that meet the standard.

"We can't legally stop anyone from using the term 'natural,' but
when consumers become aware there is a standard out there, they'll look
at products more carefully," said Daniel Fabricant, vice president of
the Natural Products Association.

In the short run, it seems like things may get even more confusing
for the eco-minded consumer. Suppose you're seeking an environmentally
friendly shampoo. Do you look for the EcoLogo seal, the Whole Foods
Premium seal, the National Products Association seal or some other
seal? Or do you try to wade through ingredient lists and company Web
sites on your own?

"You have to know which seals actually mean something - which ones
are independently verified," said Rangan of Consumer Reports.

In the long run, if consumer interest in environmental issues
remains high, some of the confusion in the green-standards world may
gradually sort itself out. Some experts say one model might be the
federal government's organic food standard, which only emerged after
years of debate.

But they doubt that we will end up with one single all-encompassing
green seal of approval. Instead, they foresee the emergence of widely
accepted standards on a range of different issues.

"Even though the U.S. environmental movement is pushing on 40 years
old, it's still really early," said Heather Stephenson, co-founder of a
Web site called IdealBite that offers environmental tips to consumers.
"Every day some new piece of information comes up. Given that we're
still learning so much, it's good to have experts in different fields
directing labeling. But having said that, it's still really confusing
to consumers."

E-mail Ilana DeBare at [email protected].