I don’t usually pitch other people’s businesses, but I just had to let people know the truth.
Among the zillions of new “Green” products on the market, some really work, some don’t…some are really Green, some are merely Greenwashed (i.e. branded and marketed as Green, but in reality…not so much)…and among the really Green products, some are worth the money and some are not.
How can you tell between all of them?
Just do what my dad used to do to look for the most reliable car for the money…check Consumer Reports. If you want to be Green, get an online subscription, not the magazine itself. It will absolutely pay for itself in what it saves you by not paying too much for a great-sounding, but not really value-laden product – be it a fancy Sub-Zero fridge or pricey Mythic Zero-VOC paint.
They look great, have great branding and cachet, but when it comes down to being tested against their peers in performance tests, they just don’t perform better or offer value for the money (although if price is no object and design is above all…go for it).
It’s also a great place to look for ideas on new Green products from people who test products and really know rather than just following the news feeds on other blogs and sites that largely get their information from what the manufacturers themselves put in their literature and press releases.
A great example is their recent report on low and zero-VOC paints. From the promotion, you’d think that Mythic (who have fabulous ads, I might add) paint is the ultimate in zero-VOC non-toxic paint, this great report may help you think again. The best price performance? It’s a shocker. It’s that old-school bargain brand Olympic Paint from Lowes! Blew my mind, dude.
For keeping up with trends, check out the recent Consumer Reports blog entry on the Most Influential Home Products of the Decade.
What are these products?
The same stuff we talk about at eco+historical. Inductive cooktops, Sustainable flooring, low or no-VOC paints, French door refrigerators, etc. But unlike us, they know what they’re talking about ;^)
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February 23, 2010 at 1:58 pm
John
It blew your mind because it wasnt true. There are several issues with their paint report, including the fact that most of the high performing quality brands lost to the cheapest Big Box brands. I have been painting for 30 years and can confirm that this an many other CSR reports are purely based on relationships they have with the companies. Our Crews are in the field and can assure you that Behr and Olympic are both cheap and poor performers. CSR funny enough has products tested by an “independent lab” that is the same lab that gets 90% of its business from Behr and Olympic….. They have lost touch and are completely owned in this department. Just like you should be wary of fancy marketing campaigns, you should be wary of those that feed the propaganda too. I had to comment, I just couldn’t let such an injustice exist. Products from Mythic and Benjamin Moore are completely misrepresented in this report. And you have singled out Mythic, which is a non toxic brand whos claims are not just their own, but verified in a contest by the Better Business Beurue just last year. Apparently the big guys wanted them out, but their claims prevailed. Dont rely on consumer reports, at least not for paint anyway!!