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It's everywhere. The grocery store, your favorite clothing store on the TV. Green marketing, eco friendly products. It's *** reusable makeup towel and it's better for the environment. Consumers can't get enough conscious consumption in the name of sustainability is on the rise and companies have taken note but some eco-friendly labels are misleading or even false. This type of deceptive advertising is known as green washing. Green washing can be found anywhere from the cars you drive to the pillows where you rest your head in one of the biggest green washing cases. Back in 2016, Volkswagen and Porsche paid over $9.5 billion to customers after the Federal trade commission sued over misleading green claims including the marketing of Volkswagen branded and Audi branded cars as clean diesel. Take one of those ads, for example. No, listen to me, Terry diesel in Latin means dirty. I'll prove it to you. You're gonna ruin your scarf. Oh, look what she's doing. See how clean it is. Here. *** woman shows the Volkswagen's car's diesel is so clean that it can't stain her pristine white scarf. The F DC alleged Volkswagen's ad campaign falsely claimed the cars were low emission and environmentally friendly. In reality, the cars were fitted with illegal emission defeat devices designed to mask high emissions during government tests. According to the F T C, the companies did not admit or deny the allegations but agreed to pay the multi billion dollar settlement. More recently, the F DC and Doj sued Coles and Walmart for marketing several textile products as bamboo made under eco friendly processes when they were actually made of rayon producing. Rayon involves using toxic chemicals and emitting hazardous pollutants. The F DC and Doj said the companies did not admit or deny the allegations but agreed to pay *** combined total of $5.5 million. Since 1992 the F DC has brought around 90 cases against companies alleging violations of the F T CS environmental marketing guidelines. So why is greenwashing so rampant? The reason that it's done is because it's so profitable and companies are aware in *** survey of around 1500 business executives, more than half said their organization overstated their sustainability efforts. Two thirds questioned how genuine some of their organizations sustainability efforts were. What can you do as *** consumer in the short term? Jones recommends labels like B Corp or fair trade on products guides like better world shopper can help people keep track of *** company's record but Jones says the solution can't fall on the consumer alone. What frustrates me the most is when people say well, it's really important to do your homework, do your research. You know, everybody should do the research because you know what, you can't do your research. It's impossible. You're going up against some of the most powerful companies in the world with some of the highest paid pr campaigns and it's just you with your computer, there's no way you're going to navigate that space. Instead, Jones has to focus on the bigger issue, pressuring lawmakers to hold companies accountable, contact your local politicians or your state or your federal politicians and, and ask them for things like more transparency and more accountability. You want to see uh what they're doing so that you can make *** choice, the more data we have the better and it has to be practical data and then you also need accountability. So if suddenly the worst green washers are fined X million dollars for every time they green wash, then it becomes not as profitable to green wash and it becomes more reasonable to do the right thing. Early efforts like that are under way to hold the fashion industry accountable. Legislators in New York have proposed the Fashion Act which require major fashion brands to disclose and reduce their negative environmental and social impacts. France is expected to require *** climate impact label on clothing sold in the country. Jones said he hopes all products will be required to have this kind of label to measure things like sustainability, you know, green impact, impact on human beings, wages, you know, anything with human rights, we really need to take stock of this moment because what we are seeing is consumers are rising up and they are demanding products and services that are doing right by people on the planet in this world.