Just what consumers and industry need, another watered down standard for home cleaning products. The Natural Products Association in conjunction with Whole Foods, and Clorox has developed a minimum standard to allow companies to claim that their products are natural.
The green cleaning business has become big business. That’s why companies like Clorox and S.C. Johnson have scrambled to come on board. They are spending a lot of money to convince you that they are green companies. Clorox is touting their Green Works products as being all-natural. S.C. Johnson claims the same on their green product line. Whole Foods while trying to do right for their consumers, has been clamoring for some kind of standard to help them communicate to their consumers, that the products they sell are natural. Their intentions are well meaning, but the reality of this new standard falls short for consumers, and actually misrepresents what can be construed as a green natural product. According to the Natural Products Association it’s OK if only 60% of a product line meets these new standards. It’s also OK if only 95% of the ingredients used in your product can be construed as natural. Water is not counted in these standards. So it’s OK to use petroleum based ingredients if they are biodegradable, and there are no substitutions for those ingredients. The funny thing is that the NPA does not look to see if there are substitutions; for the ingredients these manufacturers claim they cannot source from natural suppliers. They expect the industry and manufacturers to self regulate. Companies like Clorox, Seventh Generation, Method, and Mrs. Meyer’s like to claim that they are all natural brands. But, none of these companies actually make any of the products they sell you. They obtain their products from other private label manufacturing companies. If you actually look at the ingredient lists, and the dyes and perfumes they use, you can see that they are not selling you 100% all natural products. Getting the NPA to endorse these products adds a new false legitimacy to these products, and continues the green washing that exists in the market place. It’s similar to the US EPA Design For The Environment standard. It’s a step in the right direction, but it’s got a long way to go before it can truly be called a green standard.
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