In Part One we laid the foundation. Showing how the NRA uses slick marketing and well-produced multimedia to deliver a message supposedly promoting green business practices, emphasizing the advantages of appealing to the eco-minded customer and implementing sustainability best practices. The NRA says they offer the Greener Restaurant program as a solution for restaurateurs.

In Part Two we saw step-by-step how an imaginary restaurant - Green [...]]]> Over the past three days we’ve seen what we’ve been calling “A Greener Shade of Greenwash” from the National Restaurant Association (NRA).

In Part One we laid the foundation. Showing how the NRA uses slick marketing and well-produced multimedia to deliver a message supposedly promoting green business practices, emphasizing the advantages of appealing to the eco-minded customer and implementing sustainability best practices. The NRA says they offer the Greener Restaurant program as a solution for restaurateurs.

In Part Two we saw step-by-step how an imaginary restaurant - Green Wallace Wash – becomes Certified/Recognized by the NRA as a “Greener Restaurant” three times over, all by doing nothing more than paying the annual membership fee and going online and making false claims about its internal sustainability program – all endorsed by the National Restaurant Association’s Greener Restaurant program.

We discuss the National Restaurant Association’s attempt to sidestep accountability for a program with no standards, benchmarks, or verification by insisting such burden is on the shoulders of the consumer, not the organization granting the endorsement.

In Part Three we examined the Conserve Solutions Center, a pavilion planned for the exhibit floor of the upcoming National Restaurant Association Restaurant Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago on May 22-25.

The Conserve Solutions Center is promoted as an opportunity for business-to-business marketing of “green business solutions,” an opportunity to display green products and services for interested restaurant owners.

We saw how “Troy,” a prospective exhibitor at the Conserve Solutions Center submitted four items for consideration: two products made of virgin plastic, one cleaning product clearly stated as made from 100% Chlorine and ethyl cellusolve (a chemical listed in California as a hazardous material), and a Styrofoam cup. When specifically asked if the products were acceptable for inclusion at the Conserve Solutions Center, a representative from the NRA replied in an email: “Your products are a great fit for the Conserve Solutions Center”.

We have established a clear pattern of the kind of cynicism, deception, and false claims that define the worst in greenwashing. It should not – indeed it can not – be the burden of the customer to benchmark and verify claims implicitly and explicitly endorsed by the organization issuing the endorsement - or the endorsement means nothing. That is a truth the semantical argument in which the National Restaurant Association would have us engage over a “recognition” vs. a “certification” program cannot dissuade.

The National Restaurant Association has undertaken a sophisticated, well-planned, and intentional greenwash campaign. It ultimately hurts those it professes to help, casting doubt and suspicion on legitimately benchmarked and verified sustainability programs.

And there’s one more thing.

Lobbying against the environment

By virtue of what we have seen over the past few days, it is clear that the National Restaurant Association is marketing sustainability as a top concern. But that’s just the veneer over which lay the true agenda.

All one need do is follow the money. The National Restaurant Association is the single largest financial contributor in the industry supporting politicians blocking any progress on climate change and energy policy reform.  They are charging $250 for businesses to access a website that gives them a fake certification that isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on.  And finally, they charging up to $4,000 for businesses to claim to be green in their Conserve pavilion, regardless of how green their products are.

The NRA needs to know that the public and restaurants are smarter than that.  They deserve more than that.  The NRA needs to know that the environment is not for sale.

From attracting the growing number of eco-minded customers actively seeking out green dining options to appealing to the sincere, sustainability-minded business owner, the [...]]]>

The Conserve Solution Center - Providing real solutions or pushing greenwash?

In parts One and Two of our series A Greener Shade of Greenwash, we demonstrate how the National Restaurant Association (NRA), through their Greener Restaurant program and Conserve website, employ a compelling message aimed at restauranteurs interested in the advantages of implementing sustainability best practices in their operations.

From attracting the growing number of eco-minded customers actively seeking out green dining options to appealing to the sincere, sustainability-minded business owner, the NRA offers as a solution the Greener Restaurant program. A program that, as we see in part Two of this series, requires nothing more than payment of the $250 annual membership fee and basic computer skills to produce signed Greener Restaurant certificate and a host of marketing materials, including use of the Greener Restaurant logo. It doesn’t even require an actual restaurant to be recognized by the National Restaurant Association as a Greener Restaurant.

It is a program with no standards, benchmarking, or verification, claiming instead that such burden rests with the consumer. It is, therefore, a program that is meaningless and detrimental to the cause it claims to support. Instead of a solution, the Greener Restaurant program only creates confusion and suspicion.

Now we’ll turn our attention to the upcoming National Restaurant Association Restaurant Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago on May 22-25, and NRA plans to set up a pavilion on the exhibit floor called the Conserve Solution Center. In a press release the NRA says this about the purpose of the exhibit:

“Restauranteurs looking for ways to ramp up environmental efforts and find greener business solutions will find the information, products, services, and contacts they need…”

Care to guess what kind of products and services the NRA sees as “green business solutions?” (Here’s a hint: remember that Styrofoam cup we introduced back in part one?)

In a National Restaurant Association brochure (pdf), potential exhibitors for the Conserve Solution Center are told:

“The Conserve Solutions Center is a newly focused area on the Show floor dedicated specifically to help buyers easily find ‘sustainability related’ products and services to meet operator demand for greener solutions.

Exhibit your products and services to demonstrate how you can help them meet their sustainability objectives.”

Do you have a great green product or service you’d like to show potential customers interested in adopting greater sustainability in their business operations? Great. The Conserve Solutions Center is the place for you.

Are you just interested in taking advantage of the “green angle” to sell more of your products or services to suckers that buy into this “eco” thing? Great. The Conserve Solutions Center is the place for you.

And once again, here is proof:

Our industry-insider source for this story submitted the following four products as “green business solutions” for display at the Conserve Solutions Center:

1. Environmental Catering Tray:
   Pitch: Take a look at our new sustainable catering tray.  Made from a patent pending plastic that is able to fold into a shape that fits easy into garbage cans.  It’s no longer necessary to store catering trays next to the side of a waste basket and hope that it makes its way into the landfill. Our catering trays are an inexpensive way to help your catering needs and the planet.
   Reality: This product is made from virgin plastic. The pitch suggests that the trays can easily be thrown away, and thus somehow will “help the planet.”
2. Eco-Mug:
   Pitch: Made from Plastic: stackable and extra light, can’t be washed.  Can take it with you because of its special top.  Can keep water cold for 12 hours so it’s great for cancelling the need for ice or refrigerators.
   Reality: A mug made from virgin plastic that can’t be washed. This is green how? Because it theoretically saves the need for a few ice cubes, but hardly “cancels the need for ice or refrigerators.”
3. SoGreen Cleaner:
   Pitch: Ultra slim container let’s you take it on the go.  All plastic packaging and lasts for 30 uses.  Special six pack package are recyclable.  Made entirely from natural chlorine and butyl cellusolve.
   Reality: It’s getting pretty blatant. A product packaged in plastic made entirely from Chlorine and butyl cellusolve. Chlorine is a common chemical, and one that carries with it significant risks when used improperly – especially in a restaurant. In any case, it is hardly a new, green solution for business owners. And what exactly is “natural” chlorine? Then there is butyl cellusolve, our second ingrediant. Another fairly common chemical found in cleaning products, but with a definitively shady record. So much so that California has listed it as a hazardous substance. Studies show that butyl cellusolve can cause testicular damage and birth defects in animals. In humans it is known to irritate mucus membranes and cause liver and kidney damage. Most certainly not a “new, green solution.”
4. Hot EarthCup:
   Pitch: 100% Recyclable Polystyrene Foam.  Recylable throughout the U.S.  Insulates Hot Drinks.
   Reality: It’s a Styrofoam cup! The kind that have been clogging landfills for decades, as we discuss in part One. True, polystyrene is technically recyclable, but it is most often not, because the process is slow and normally not cost effective. In fact, most companies, including giants like Wal-Mart, are urging suppliers to use less Styrofoam in packaging and other products. There is little conceivable way a cup made from polystyrene foam is a solution for greater sustainability worthy of exhibition at something called a “Conserve Solutions Center”.

The following graphic of an email thread displays how “Troy,” a prospective exhibitor, asked NRA representative Brad Putz to review the submitted products and confirm that they qualify for inclusion in the Conserve Solutions Center. Brad’s response?

“Troy – Your products are a great fit for the Conserve Solutions Center.”

What does it mean for the sustainability-seeking business owner?

Clearly there are no real standards for a product or service to be included in the Conserve Solutions Center pavilion at the upcoming National Restaurant Association Restaurant Hotel-Motel Show in Chicago. That is not to say there aren’t legitimate green service providers and product manufacturers interested in displaying their wares. It does mean that it doesn’t matter to the National Restaurant Association.

As we’ve previously seen with the Greener Restaurant program in parts One and Two of this series, a program promoting sustainability best practices without benchmarks or verification is the very definition of greenwash.

With the Conserve Solutions Center, it is just more of the same greenwash.

Tomorrow’s conclusion discusses the nature of political lobbying efforts from the National Restaurant Association.

Follow along as a restaurant called “Green Wallace Wash” (not a real restaurant) gets their green credentials from the National Restaurant Association.

To recap, in part one yesterday, we outlined the Greener Restaurants program sponsored by the National Restaurant Association (NRA). We showed how the NRA utilizes increased public awareness of green and sustainability issues to motivate restauranteurs to join the program (for a $250 annual subscription).

Through [...]]]>

Getting a Fake Green Restaurant Certificate from the National Restaurant Association:
easy as 1, 2, 3…

Follow along as a restaurant called “Green Wallace Wash” (not a real restaurant) gets their green credentials from the National Restaurant Association.

To recap, in part one yesterday, we outlined the Greener Restaurants program sponsored by the National Restaurant Association (NRA). We showed how the NRA utilizes increased public awareness of green and sustainability issues to motivate restauranteurs to join the program (for a $250 annual subscription).

Through the NRA’s well-produced Conserve website and video, we learn how other successful restaurants are reaping the benefits of committing to implementation of sustainability best practices, attracting more eco-minded customers (and how more customers are becoming eco-minded).

The website (correctly) extols the advantages of becoming a “greener” restaurant, and the advantages of taking a step-by-step “best practices approach” to sustainability. An approach that not only can save money in the long run. It’s the right thing to do on a triple bottom line - benefiting people, planet, and profit.

It is a compelling story for restauranteurs, urging them to become part of an expanding group of like-minded business owners ready to blaze the trail for the future of American restaurants. And thus the story begins.

Now it’s time to find out if the NRA backs up this polished message with a real program worthy of the rhetorical flourish and, more importantly, worthy of trust. Or if underneath it is all just well-oiled greenwash.

Through an industry-insider tip, TheGreenwashingBlog shows how “Green Wallace Wash,” doing nothing more than paying the annual fee for membership and making a few selections on the website, produces not one, but three separate  Greener Restaurant certificates, each verifying membership in the National Restaurant Association’s Greener Restaurant program. All for a restaurant that doesn’t even exist.

Here’s proof:

Scenario 1: One step (30 seconds to an NRA certified Greener Restaurant)

The following video shows Green Wallace Wash logging in, then choosing an option indicating the restaurant is creating a “green marketing plan.”  Within seconds a certificate is available for downloaded on their computer. With that certificate also comes additional marketing materials, such as a handy decal to display on your front door (if you have one), and a listing in the NRA’s “Green Dining Finder.”

This video shows Green Wallace Wash taking the story a bit further. Five items are clicked, claiming that local utilities have done an assessment of energy and water use. Remember, this restaurant isn’t real. There is no requirement to verify that such assessments from the utilities were actually done. It took 90 seconds in this case to get a Greener Restaurants certificate from the National Restaurant Association.

Nothing is spared in our third example. Green Wallace Wash is the greenest restaurant possible in the eyes of the National Restaurant Association. In this video, every option is checked: 40 items for Energy Efficiency, 11 for Water Conservation, 18 in Waste Reduction, 10 in Building/Construction, and 11 for Program Administration. Whew! That was exhausting. Five whole minutes to certification – and not one of the 90 items checked are verified, accomplished, or even planned for our imaginary restaurant.

As we plainly see in these three examples, all that is required for endorsement by the National Restaurant’s Greener Restaurant program is payment of a fee and basic computer skills. And with such endorsement comes an assurance from the NRA that a restaurant is planning, pursuing, and implementing sustainability best practices. In fact, it doesn’t even require an actual restaurant. Nonetheless, we see how easy it is to get an instantly downloadable certificate, a listing on the NRA’s “Green Dining Finder,” and other marketing materials, including use of the Greener Restaurant logo on a decal to put on your door informing your eco-monded customers just how green you are – even if you aren’t.

And what if you really are a restaurant owner, interested in actually doing what you – and the NRA – say you’re doing? Good for you. You are doing the right thing.

The problem is that not every owner is as honest as you are, unfortunately making the Greener Restaurant certificate from the NRA all but meaningless.

Recognition vs. certification

By calling Greener Restaurants a “recognition program,” the National Restaurant Association seeks to shift responsibility for benchmarking and verification, while at the same time claiming to retain the authenticity and legitimacy that comes with an honest and transparent  green practices program. How can this be?

In the brief audio clip that follows, Chris Moyer, manager of the NRA’s Greener Restaurant program, says in a recorded telephone conversation that the “push-back” from some complaining there are no benchmarking and verification requirements is answered by the expectation that such methods will be employed “every day by the customer”.

My guess is that many or most of the steps in the Greener Restaurants program are out of sight of the average customer, who would have neither the knowledge nor the tools to understand if best practices were used or not, even if they did have access.

The customer relies on the very sort of endorsement that is both explicit and implicit in an official looking decal pasted on a restaurant’s front door confirming the establishment is a member in good standing of a major trade organization’s green restaurant program.

The NRA can’t have it both ways, “recognition” in this context should minimally imply endorsement, sanction, certification. Some assurance that the statements and claims made are verifiable and real.

At best the argument of recognition vs. certification from Moyer and the NRA is naive, at worst disingenuous and detrimental to the very cause it professes to support.

There are trusting people among us, some own restaurants and some patronize them. You might be one of those people. Once trust is violated, trusting people can become a bit less trusting. Greenwash is eventually exposed for what it is. So when the next green program comes along, no matter how worthy, it is seen as suspect. You’ve been burned before. “It’s all just greenwash.” The result is real change, a transition to real sustainability, becomes that much more difficult.

I don’t think the National Restaurant Association is being naive.

In part three tomorrow, we’ll revisit the Styrofoam cup we introduced in part one, for an interesting twist on the green properties of Styrofoam.

This story is exclusive to TheGreenWashingBlog.com

Four decades ago, around the time of the first Earth Day, a person wouldn’t think twice about tossing a styrofoam cup in the trash after a single gulp of water. Most people wouldn’t have a notion what they should even think twice about. After all, there’s plenty where that came from.

These days most people are at least vaguely aware that with the casual toss of a styrofoam [...]]]> Fake certification program results in confusion and misrepresentation

This story is exclusive to TheGreenWashingBlog.com

Four decades ago, around the time of the first Earth Day, a person wouldn’t think twice about tossing a styrofoam cup in the trash after a single gulp of water. Most people wouldn’t have a notion what they should even think twice about. After all, there’s plenty where that came from.

These days most people are at least vaguely aware that with the casual toss of a styrofoam cup goes an enormous amount of resources. Resources suddenly turned into unyielding waste. Many might still toss the cup, but people are generally smarter about “being green,” for lack of a better phrase, than they were forty years ago.

That’s what makes the National Restaurant Association’s new “Greener Restaurants” program so insidious.

TheGreenWashingBlog has acquired insider information and evidence that show how the National Restaurant Association (NRA) plays on (and hides behind) that increased consumer awareness – to the detriment of both customer and business owner. We will reveal over the next several days how the NRA offers to its members what is essentially a bogus green restaurant certification program. Though the NRA calls it a “recognition” program to deflect the responsibility and integrity of actual certification, we will show how any such distinction is the same as that between green and greenwash.

With no benchmarks or verifiable standards this is a program that allows both unscrupulous and well-meaning restaurant owners to claim adherence to sustainability practices in their business, and to display that claim to the public. The scheme muddies the waters between what is green and what is greenwash, leaving the diner hoping to patronize  a verified sustainably-run establishment out in the cold. It’s hit or miss at best because all it really takes to be endorsed by the National Restaurant Association as a “greener restaurant” is green. Money. Cold, hard cash.

And it all starts with exactly the right message…

Pushing the right emotional buttons

If you’re concerned about sustainability issues and making greener choices, you’ll probably appreciate the following video. It says all the right things and makes all the right points.

If you’re a little on the fence over whether all the “green” stuff is just  a fad or worth the time (and money), the video might convince you otherwise.

It’s a pretty slick video. It’s where it ultimately leads that is the problem, and is where the journey begins. But like that styrofoam cup (which we will visit again later in this story), the spirit of the message the video conveys will soon be tossed aside and turned against itself in a cynical attempt to turn green into greenwash.

Tomorrow we’ll dig into how the program works.

It’s an image that turns more brown with each passing day.

The cup is made of polyethylene, a material that is not compostable. To claim a product is compostable, it must pass the ASTM D6400 and D6868 test, and be certified by the [...]]]> Georgia-Pacific claims their “PerfecTouch” line of plastic cups are compostable (see second bullet point in this online listing). While there is a bit of a qualification in that listing, our whistle-blower on this story says the cup is also described in print catalogs with no qualification regarding its compostability whatsoever.

The cup is made of polyethylene, a material that is not compostable. To claim a product is compostable, it must pass the ASTM D6400 and D6868 test, and be certified by the Biodegradable Products Institute. The PerfcTouch cup made by Georgia-Pacific does not meet any of these qualifications.

Our reader/watchdog summed it up best: ”GP (Georigia-Pacific) is falsely advertising this product and completely misleading consumers which cause bad soil quality, consumer confusion, and is plain-and-simple green washing”.

If you have a tip for us, please let us know.

However, while attending an event outside their corporate headquarters in Burlington, Vermont, I saw this photo.  I don’t believe any company can run without waste, but this picture is at the very least, worth a chuckle.

With all due respect, Seventh Generation could probably reduce their waste some.

a) They offer two phones made in part by recycled plastics.  When looking into this claim, the housings of the devices are made with 25% post-consumer plastic.  In reality, electronics producers typically use partially recycled plastic.  It’s an economics thing Fido, don’t flatter yourself.  Plus, only 17% [...]]]> Anyone seen the recent Fido Cellular commercials?  In addition to being cheap-looking and pixely, a major component of the campaign is the “eco-friendliness” of Fido.  They claim two traits make Fido the green choice.

a) They offer two phones made in part by recycled plastics.  When looking into this claim, the housings of the devices are made with 25% post-consumer plastic.  In reality, electronics producers typically use partially recycled plastic.  It’s an economics thing Fido, don’t flatter yourself.  Plus, only 17% of electronics are made of plastic.  This according to the Plastics Division of American Chemistry.

b) “All plans come with online billing”.  Again, this is economics.  Everyone knows it’s cheaper to produce and process online bills.  Secondly, virtually every cell provider offers this.  By outlining something you and everyone else already does, you aren’t any greener than you were yesterday.

So here’s a tip if you really want to “green-up” your cell service.  Stop switching phones every 6 months.  A great deal of the environmental impact of your cell phone is caused by the production and disposal of electronics which contain harmful chemicals, volatile and environmentally disruptive metals, and non-bio-degradable plastics.  Want to be a green cell consumer?  Keep that old phone until it stops making calls.

We were sent this tip from Taryn. On the same day, Taryn received her issue of National Geographic (whose current issue is about global water resources), and in it was this first ad on the left. In Taryn’s mailbox was also her latest issue of Wired, containing within its pages the ad below –  with a remarkably  different message; “jarring” is the word Taryn used to describe her reaction.

While the SaveWaterAmerica campaign is educational and ostensibly leads to a good [...]]]>

We were sent this tip from Taryn. On the same day, Taryn received her issue of National Geographic (whose current issue is about global water resources), and in it was this first ad on the left. In Taryn’s mailbox was also her latest issue of Wired, containing within its pages the ad below –  with a remarkably  different message; “jarring” is the word Taryn used to describe her reaction.

While the SaveWaterAmerica campaign is educational and ostensibly leads to a good cause, could they do more? Why the stark difference in their message between these two ads? Readers of Wired don’t even get to hear about SaveWaterAmerica.

Thanks to Taryn for this tip, if you have a greenwashing ad or PR campaign you’d like us to know about please submit your tip for consideration

National Geographic Ad text:

Bold. Conservation.

Sometimes boldness is about clarity – about know what’s important. For us, it’s a commitment to creating water-saving products people love to use. Visit us online to calculate how much water you can save, and we’ll donate $1 in water-saving products, up to $2 million, in support of Habitat for Humanity’s green building efforts. Together, we can make a world of difference.

SaveWaterAmrecia.com

Do we think these two are concerned about their water conservation efforts, or are encouraged toward conservation by anything seen in this ad? Or is it just a display of indulgence and excess?

Wired Ad text:

KOHLER: As I See It, #87 in a series

“The judges give it a perfect 10″

SHOWER: Multiple shimmering tiles – digitally controlled and beautifully affordable – that give you water, sound, light, and steam