By Lee Colyer Speight, Ph.D., Manager, Technology & Downstream Products; and Christopher J. Lanci, Ph.D., Manager, Downstream Business Development, North America, Green Biologics Inc., Abingdon, Oxon, U.K.; and Douglas Mazeffa, Environmental Project Manager, The Sherwin-Williams Company, Cleveland, OH
Greenwashing, or the practice of misrepresenting or over representing the environmental benefits of a product or practice, is common in consumer marketing. The term was coined in 1986 by Jay Westervelt to describe the still-used practice of hotel chains encouraging patrons to reuse towels and sheets under the guise of environmental stewardship. Westervelt felt that such practices were ruses – in his mind, the hotel chains were simply hoping for decreased energy or water bills and thus greater profit margins.