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Integra81 · 05-05-09, 05:04

Great post, thanks for bringing this up. Another label to look out for is the EPA DFE (Design for Environment). I think ultimately DFE will become the standard for industry. Most of the major manufacturers in the cleaning industry (Clorox, J&J, etc) have their products certified under DFE and not the other two. Plus, the GreenSeal & ECP programs have exorbitant costs which are hard to justify.

You are 100% right with the label claims. I have seen countless products on the market today make statements about "biodegradable" and "petro-chemical free" when in fact they are not. I believe the FTC is in the process of revamping the "Green Guidelines". Hopefully they begin enforcing them on manufacturers making these false claims.

While the 3rd party validation and labels claims are a great starting point, I think it ultimately comes down to the manufacturers being open and transparent about what they are putting in their products. For instance, the household cleaning aisle has completely transformed over the past few years due to brands like Seventh Generation, Method and Ecover forcing greater ingredient transparency on the big guys. Shouldn't the automotive manufacturers be held to the same standard?

05-05-09, 05:04	#2 (permalink)
Integra81 Registered User Integra81 is offline Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 17	Re: Green Products Great post, thanks for bringing this up. Another label to look out for is the EPA DFE (Design for Environment). I think ultimately DFE will become the standard for industry. Most of the major manufacturers in the cleaning industry (Clorox, J&J, etc) have their products certified under DFE and not the other two. Plus, the GreenSeal & ECP programs have exorbitant costs which are hard to justify. You are 100% right with the label claims. I have seen countless products on the market today make statements about "biodegradable" and "petro-chemical free" when in fact they are not. I believe the FTC is in the process of revamping the "Green Guidelines". Hopefully they begin enforcing them on manufacturers making these false claims. While the 3rd party validation and labels claims are a great starting point, I think it ultimately comes down to the manufacturers being open and transparent about what they are putting in their products. For instance, the household cleaning aisle has completely transformed over the past few years due to brands like Seventh Generation, Method and Ecover forcing greater ingredient transparency on the big guys. Shouldn't the automotive manufacturers be held to the same standard?