Green claims carry new liability

If I skipped breakfast and claimed I’d given up food entirely, you’d think I’d gone mad. If I drove my diesel-powered car 200 miles to buy a naturally dyed, ‘fossil fuel-free’ t-shirt and rammed its fossil fuel freeness down your throat, you’d think I was a raving hypocrite. And if I said all synthetic dyes were carcinogenic, I’d hope you’d do a bit of research and call me a liar.

The term greenwashing was first coined by the environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986, faced with the contradiction of a hotel group asking him to save the planet by re-using towels, whilst simultaneously wrecking natural habitats for new buildings.