Life Cycle Thinking Blog

EPA announced it has rejected confidentiality claims for chemical identity of 14 chemicals in health and safety studies under TSCA. The agency is narrowly interpreting TSCA to only allow limited claims of confidential business information (CBI) especially for chemical identity in studies. It remains to be seen if companies can justify some of their claims.

USDA has published its final rule on a voluntary product certification and labeling program for “biopreferred products” – bio-based materials containing products (like NatureWorks corn-based polylactic acid polymers). See rule and guidance here. The program is set for launch Feb 21, 2011.

The FTC just announced action against a company that provided bogus “Tested Green” certifications to customers for a fee. Press release here. Sounds like there could be some other laws the company violated too….
Don’t be taken in looking for a quick “green” claim. There are some legitimate 3rd party certifiers out there, but you really need to know your market and your competition and have facts to back up your claim.

I have to agree, “sustainability” is a frustrating term now being used by anyone for anything (nearly 30 million hits on Google search!). Always an issue when marketing jumps on a term. See Triple Pundit’s article: http://www.triplepundit.com/2011/01/ad-age-names-sustainability-one-jargoniest-jargon-words-2010/

I also commented to the FTC that it shouldn’t be accepted as an environmental marketing claim.