What is greenwashing?

Q:
What is "greenwashing"?

A:

As "green building" becomes a more popular term and methods and technology for house construction evolve, more products claim to provide ecological or resource-efficient benefits. Sometimes such claims are dubious or at least overstated. The term "greenwashing" refers to a product or supplier for which the claimed environmental benefit is minor or is dependent on other features or other products to deliver on its promise. It can also mean that the product or supplier requires more energy to create and supply the product than it actually saves, or the product is simply unfounded and unproven with little to no research or science behind it.

Examples of greenwashing in the home construction are things such as cheap bamboo floors. Cheap bamboo floors claim to be green and environmentally friendly. There is a reason that bamboo is considered green;

• It is a fast growing plant that only needs 5 to 7 years to fully grow to be ready to be harvested.

• It is easily pressed together to create a hard flooring.

• It is extremely durable and takes a finish well.

When you buy cheap or inexpensive bamboo floors you take the risk of ending up with an inferior product, cheap bamboo flooring has the following problems;

• The bamboo is picked when is young for 1-3 years old instead allowing it to mature. The problem with this is that the bamboo is softer and the color is less consistent.

• The products that are used to make the flooring are not natural or environmentally friendly, they are cheaper chemicals like Formaldehyde, that’s right formaldehyde the stuff they put in dead bodies to help preserve them. Formaldehyde has a tendency to off gas, this is what would be off-gasing in your home.

• The finishes of cheaper bamboo floors do not hold up well and have to be repaired or placed quicker.

So here is a product that you as the consumer think is a “green” product but if your not careful you could end up being worse then everything else.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.