Monitoring Green-Ad Creep

It’s hard to say when green became the new black, or how extensively the eco-is-chic movement of late has permeated into mainstream culture, but one thing is certain: Advertisers are slathering green all over ads for everything from cars to coal power. Enter local marketing firm EnviroMedia, who this week launched GreenwashingIndex.com, in partnership with the University of Oregon School of Journalism and Communication.

It's an online forum for consumers to judge for themselves whether a company’s ad represents greenwashing – defined as spending more time and money claiming to be green through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact.

As of Tuesday, 8,700 people had visited the site, where users are invited to post questionably green ads or view and rate previously posted ads. Toping the worst greenwashing ads was a Chevrolet billboard describing the company as “Gas-friendly to gas-free,” even though Chevy hasn’t sold a gas-free vehicle since the infamous EV1. Among best rated ads is one for EarthFriendlyMoving.com, a Southern California-based startup that employs loads of green tactics, including renting plastic boxes made from recycled content (aka The RecoPack), to eliminate cardboard box paper use and waste.