Here it Comes: The Year of Greenwash

Michelle Moore, a senior vice president of the USGBC, recently spent a day in our offices. Speculating on the shapes of things to come both near and far, she said something that stuck with me: "We're entering the year of greenwash." As if it wasn't already bad enough.

The reduction of social and environmental movements to merchandising means that a cause has hit the big time... but the increased breadth tends to come with a commensurate loss of depth. If you're old enough to remember the solar-design movement of the '70s, you probably also remember when bell-bottoms became available in the Sears catalog.

A report titled Trends in Trademarks by Glenn Gunderson, chair of the Trademark Group of the international law firm Dechert LLP, notes that 2007 was the busiest year ever for the Trademark Office, with over 300,000 new applications — the previous high was during the internet boom of 2000 — and that green branding was the big trend, "with multiple companies filing for almost-identical marks at nearly the same time."

Applications using the word 'green' more than doubled — "it was the third year in a row when GREEN branding far outpaced the overall increase in applications, following a 37% increase in 2006 and a 23% gain in 2005." The prefix 'eco' also more than doubled in new applications, in conjunction with products ranging from building materials to cosmetics. 'Enviro' was also popular. 'Earth' increased by 60%, 'planet' by 50%, and 'energy' by 25% (though about a third of those were for things like energy drinks and supplements).

People need to get it: Green products do not a green building make.