Is That Product Green? Eric Corey Freed Tells Us How to Find Out

With so much information out there regarding what is green, how can you know what to rely on? And how can you determine what companies and products are really green? We got some great suggestions when we met with Eric Corey Freed, principle of Organic Architect and author of Green Building for Dummies.

According to Eric, green is not black and white. There are a lot of shades of grey. To deal with this, Eric encourages people to not just take company claims at face value. He says to "ask the right questions, because the questions start to paint a picture almost intuitively. Is this green? Does it feel green?" So what are the right questions? Here are some Eric suggests:

1. What is this made from?

2. Where does it come from?

3. What are the byproducts of making it?

4. How healthy is it?

5. What are we going to do with it when we're done with it?

Eric says that when asking these questions you should keep in mind that no material is perfect. All materials have some form of impact, and our job is to minimize and mitigate that. Eric adds that greenwashing is a big issue you will encounter during your quest for green products. When companies greenwash, they blatantly lie or unintentionally misdirect people about the health aspects or green features of their products. To illustrate: Company X says that its product is made from recycled material, but in reality it only contains 3% recycled material, which is practically insignificant. A simple question about recycled content would allow you to see through this.

This video was produced by buildaroo.com.  Keep looking through our site for more information about sustainable companies and products.