Sleeping with the Enemy?

Ok, so the title is a little dramatic but it got your attention didn't it?

One of the problems with greenwashing is that instead of assuring me that I'm purchasing an environmental safe product from a responsible company, I end up not trusting any claim. Even from a trusted grassroots organization.

Case in point: Clorox and The Sierra Club.

As of 2007, Clorox has partnered with The Sierra Club to produce a line of 'green' products called 'Greenworks'.

The Sierra Club website says that the organization is proud to help offer the consumer a variety of safe and green products for household cleaning.

The 'greenness' of these products is debatable; the ingrediants are listed on the side however the word 'natural' is used often which is commonly used to hide harmful but still technically natural ingrediants.

But let's give Clorox and The Sierra Club the benefit of the doubt and assume they are completely green products.

The real issue is that The Sierra Club is now getting a cut of the profits from the products.

Is this a win win situation?: new green products and an environmental group is getting a cut.

However, doesn't this new partnership mean that The Sierra Club will essentially look the other way when it comes to all the other environmentally harmful business practices of Clorox?

A former employee thinks so.

The real problem is that this type of partnership isn't rare and that the public won't know to what extent it is affecting the decisions and campaigns of their environmental watchdog organizations.

It's easy to judge these organizations but it's understandably tempting to accept the cash, look the other way and tackle another environmental issue with the funds.