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26 • Green Project Management

piles to “eat” the diapers. Additionally, it has been found that biodegrad-
able diapers may contain more plastic than disposable diapers, to make up
for their lack of strength. As you can see, the biodegradable controversy
continues. One of the best Web sites we have found to help the project
manager with biodegradable solutions is that of Biodegradable Products
Institute, Inc., out of New York City (http://www.bpiworld.org/).

greenWashing

Greenwashing is a derogatory term for a variety of practices that appear
green but in actuality give only lip service to being green. “More than
98% of supposedly natural and environmentally friendly products on U.S.
supermarket shelves are making potentially false or misleading claims.”
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The word has been around since 1999, when it was defined as “disinfor-
mation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmen-
tally responsible public image” by the Oxford English Dictionary. While
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we’ve read definition after definition (with some being rather complex),
various “deadly sins of greenwashing,” and much more, for simplicity’s
sake we will put it this way—you will know it when you see it. It is decep-
tion, making people believe that a company, a product, or a process is
green when in actuality it is not. It also has the caveat that it is intentional.
There will be some instances when there is an honest belief that what is
being portrayed is green, when in fact it may not be. That is more of an
uninformed disclosure rather than greenwashing. Using the old “duck
analogy” backward, “if it doesn’t walk like a duck, quack like a duck, or
swim like a duck, it probably isn’t a duck.” So, if it doesn’t feel “green,” it
probably isn’t.

The term greenwashing was coined by suburban New York environ-
mentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986. He used the word in an essay in
regard to the hotel industry’s practice of placing placards in each room
promoting reuse of guest towels to “save the environment.” He argued
that the hotel industry was doing little or nothing else to help the envi-
ronment and that playing on guests’ environmental consciences to
reuse towels was merely a ploy to save money.