Sustainability Law Blog

On January 14, the federal Minerals Management Service released a draft environmental impact statement on the Cape Wind offshore wind energy project in Nantucket Sound off the coast of Massachusetts. The DEIS found the proposed site to be environmentally and economically superior to alternative sites. Critics were quick to point out that the DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement) does not declare Cape Wind as the "preferred alternative for offshore wind development in New England." Methinks they protest too much; NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) only requires an evaluation of a reasonable range of alternatives (of which Cape Wind was superior), not every conceivable alternative for an offshore wind project in all of New England. Opponents also trotted out previously discredited arguments that Cape Wind was unsafe and would increase the cost of power for Massachusetts customers.

I wrote previously on this blog about the Cape Wind project (see January 19 post), and I think it is a well-conceived, pioneering project that should be built. Hopefully, the political shenanigans that have slowed the project so far are a thing of the past and construction can begin in 2010 as currently planned. To review and comment on the DEIS click here.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

Posted by Tonkon Torp LLP | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Renewable Energy

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Consumers are increasingly saying they want the option to buy green products. But they’re also wary about greenwashing and the authenticity of claims from product manufacturers seeking to ride the green wave. As Eric Wilson noted in his December 17, 2007, post, “more than half of the 2,007 respondents in a shopper survey in September by BBMG, a branding agency, said they were looking for certification seals on green claims to feel confident about their purchases.”

Such labeling systems do exist. TerraChoice has its EcoLogo ™. Fair trade has labeling initiatives under the umbrella of the Fair Trade Labeling Organizations Initiative. Many consumer products industries have their own labeling system.

Enviromedia Social Marketing created “The Greenwashing Index,” the first online, interactive forum that allows consumers to evaluate the environmental claims made in advertisements. The purpose of the Greenwashing Index, according to Enviromedia Social Marketing is to:

• Help consumers become more savvy about evaluating environmental marketing claims of advertisers;


• Hold businesses accountable to their environmental marketing claims;


• Stimulate the market and demand for sustainable business practices that truly reduce the impact on the environment.

Websites such as www.buygreen.com use proprietary rating systems to encourage an environmentally preferred purchasing strategy for consumers and businesses. Buygreen.com does extensive research to rate products based on their material sourcing, manufacturing process, use and disposability. What’s one of the more popular products sold at www.buygreen.com? Garbage bags. Somehow, that seems appropriate.

I met Allison Huke, co-founder of Buygreen.com, at the Green Business Conference last November in San Francisco. A profile of Allison and BuyGreen.com can be found here. Allison says she started the company because, like many people, she didn’t know where to buy green products or how to sift through various green claims. This confusion is one of the reasons greenwashing exists.

We can either sit around and wait for the FTC to tell us what green means, or we can do what Allison did and what Enviromedia enables – figure out for ourselves, based on our own value systems, how green is green.

Posted by David Copley Forman | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Sustainable Products

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Greenwashing - the little green lie. Apparently, the lies aren’t so little and they’re incredibly widespread. Or, maybe we’re all just confused about what it means to be green or sustainable.

A recent study by the environmental marketing firm TerraChoice found that 99% of over 1,000 randomly surveyed consumer products were guilty of greenwashing – a term the firm defines to mean “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.” In other words: false advertising.

TerraChoice identified six sins of greenwashing, including hidden tradeoffs, no proof, vagueness, irrelevance, fibbing and “lesser of two evils.” More detailed information about these six sins can be found on their website.

The problem appears so prevalent that the FTC is getting involved. Last month it opened hearings on green advertising claims. Although the Commission has environmental marketing guidelines, they haven’t been updated since 1998.
See www.ftc.gov/bcp/grnrule/guides980427.htm.

On the other hand, Andy Savitz, in his “The Triple Bottom Line Blog”, suggests that maybe the problem isn’t as pervasive as it appears. Andy notes that many of the sins are of the hidden tradeoff type. For example, the car manufacturer that promotes its greenness with its hybrid, but produces twice as many gas guzzling SUVs, it doesn’t make the hybrid any less of a green option.

Nonetheless, consumers looking to buy green need some means of determining which green products are legitimately sustainable vs. marketing hype. More on that in my next post.

Posted by David Copley Forman | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Sustainable Products

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If you are a Northwest Oregon driver, your tanks are now filled with blended fuel that is 10% ethanol. In case you missed it, the Oregon Legislature's HB 2210 required a 10% ethanol blend in nine Northwest Oregon counties beginning January 15, 2008. Nine more counties join the requirement on April 15. By September 16, only airplane fuel will not be required to be an ethanol blend in Oregon.

While the ethanol additive may help the environment, reduce dependency on foreign oil and lower pump prices, an indisputable benefit is that most of the ethanol needed to supply our stock will be produced in Oregon. Pacific Ethanol's Boardman facility, which began production last August, is slated to produce 40 million gallons of ethanol a year.

Posted by Max M. Miller, Jr. | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Sustainable Products

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A recent analysis by the Renewable Northwest Project (RNP) shows that the northwestern states of Oregon, Washington and Montana are well on the way to meeting the requirements of their respective renewable portfolio standards (RPS) for 2025. As shown in this chart from RNP, the RPS's for the three states collectively require the development of 2,969 MW of renewable power by 2025. To date, 586 MW of renewables are online in these three states, which is about 20% of the 2025 requirement. Note that since most of the northwest's renewables are wind energy, the 586 MW figure is determined by applying an average capacity factor of 33% to the region's 1,758 MW of installed wind power capacity.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

Posted by Tonkon Torp LLP | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Renewable Energy

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Nine Midwestern governors and the Canadian province of Manitoba recently signed an agreement to create a regional energy security and greenhouse gas reduction strategy. This coalition is the third regional coalition in North America, joining the Western Climate Initiative and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative in the northeast. These regional initiatives show that the states continue to be the incubators for real action on global warming. This is no coincidence -- in recent surveys, 81% of Americans have said that the government should do more to combat climate change. If the feds are not going to lead on this issue, they should get out of the way and let the states and these regional coalitions respond to public sentiment by moving forward with innovative approaches to fighting climate change.

Posted by David J. Petersen, partner practicing in the Sustainability and Real Estate & Land Use Practice Groups.

Posted by Tonkon Torp LLP | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Climate Change

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