A Place to Start

Once we decide that we need to, or want to green our lives we then have to decide where and how to make changes.  It can be mind boggling when you start to investigate, reuse, recycle, upcycle, carbon footprint, eco tourism, eco fashion,  greenwashing, oh my.   I want to be value minded and not get taken for a ride because I do believe in doing it right.  Greenwashing is somewhat of a pet peeve of mine.  In managing my life, I have tried to be as authentic as possible.  Integrity in business is very important to me, perhaps because I've been taken advantage of at various times and so I've vowed to never be that person.   I believe in being as true as possible, it's easier that way.  Hamlet's quote "oh what a tangled web we weave when at first we practice to deceive" has always struck a chord with me.  As I get older especially, it's just easier to tell the truth than get into a lie that will have a domino effect leading to more and more lies to keep it going, and then there's who you told which lie to worry about. Forget about it, life's too short, if you're authentic then you never have that stress. It's a challenge to remember what I had for breakfast yesterday or where my keys are, let alone keep track of a web of deception. So greenwashing is where I'm going to start.

Greenwashing, as defined in wikipedia, is the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly, such as by presenting cost cuts as reductions in use of resources. It is a deceptive use of green PR or green marketing.  How can you get away from this?  Ask questions!  If a product is billed as green, ask why,  how,  and to what degree. With regard to sustainable fashion,  a clothing article that claims to be green but has only a nominal percentage of a green fabric content is not really green.  A clothing line that touts itself to be green because they reduce or recycle paper products in the office,  but offers conventional cotton, polyester, etc. is not really "sustainable" fashion.  They may be implementing green business practices, but that's entirely different and does not in my opinion give one the right to tout itself as eco fashion.  We have to ask and read labels to be sure that we get what we are truly looking for. So many of us are label readers in the grocery store, it's time we start investigating our apparel and home products as well.