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FTC Moves To Help Consumers Decipher Eco-Clothing Claims

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By ERIC WILSON, The New York Times

Published: December 17, 2007

Let us set aside the cliches about green fashion, ye cynical Kermits, and presume that everyone is on board with saving the world by doing our holiday shopping at Barneys, where even window displays promote eco-friendly clothing.

Let us also presume that organic cotton jeans are good for the Earth and soy-based underwear will someday save the polar bears. Let us carry all our purchases of environmentally sensitive clothing made from bamboo, corn, coconuts, hemp and/or pineapples in our reusable designer grocery bags.

If only buying into green fashion were so easy.

No matter how sincere fashion designers may be in their efforts to embrace the green movement this season, consumers may find themselves perplexed by how to gauge the environmental impact of products claiming to be eco-friendly.

After factoring in the fabrics used in clothes and how they were produced, the real benefits of soy versus organic cotton versus recycled polyester may be slight, confusing or quite possibly misleading.

"When you only look at the raw materials to ask if something is really green, you are like the blind person holding the tail of the elephant," said Chris Van Dyke, chief executive of Nau, a 3-year-old outdoor clothing line founded on the principle of sustainable practices throughout its production cycle, including the ecological costs of shipping and caring for garments.

"There's a whole lot of other factors you need to assess."

Some clothes, such as Loomstate's $295 organic cotton jeans - sold unwashed and not color-fast, to save energy - require unusual care. A pair of 2(x)ist soy underwear, $24 at Macy's, include a warning to expect imperfections.

"These characteristics should not be considered flaws in the fabric," the packaging says, "but rather as an intrinsic quality contributing to the uniqueness of the garment."

Some designs marketed as environment-friendly might include only a fraction of organic cotton or a tag made of recycled paper.

And some so-called green fashion may be downright silly, such as the Goyard canvas shopping tote shown in the Barneys "Have a Green Holiday" catalog: The bag is $1,065, plus $310 for painted monogramming of a triangular recycle symbol in gold. The canvas, the catalog says, is "100% recyclable."

Sorry, does canvas go with paper, plastic or glass?

Almost every industry has felt the explosion of green marketing. Green is the new new and improved.

But the trend has advanced so quickly that it becomes difficult to evaluate the claims of products that say they are biodegradable, carbon neutral or made from sustainable materials.

In recognition of rapidly expanding consumer interest, the Federal Trade Commission said last week that it will quickly re-evaluate its guides for green designations in marketing, last updated in 1998, to determine whether they need to be expanded.

More than half of the 2,007 respondents in a shopper survey in September by BBMG, a branding agency, said they look for certification seals on green claims to feel confident about their purchases.

"It is no longer OK to slap a green label on something and think that is acceptable to consumers," said Raphael Bemporad, a partner in the agency.

For consumers trying to balance their interests between consumption and the environment, the pros and cons of green fashion are complex.

Fabrics made from bamboo or hemp, for example, are promoted as having been raised without pesticides and also for growing much faster than cotton. But the downside is that bamboo or hemp fibers are naturally tough and are typically softened before being woven into fabric by using chemical treatments, which cause more pollution.

Naturally softer fabrics made from soy have a mild impact compared to cotton, according to environmental groups, but they are less durable, so clothes wear out faster and have to be replaced more often.

Organic cotton, which has become trendy in recent years because it is grown without pesticides, represents only a tiny fraction of the global cotton crop, about .02 percent, according to statistics provided by several agencies. But organic cotton is not always used in its pure state. A fabric may be chemically treated or printed with toxic dyes and still be labeled as organic.

Clothes that are assembled in factories far from the mills that produced the fabrics and the stores that sell the finished products leave carbon footprints in their journey.

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