Today I read their label. Talk about hedging their legal bets. They say, “We believe that natural laundry products should: Give you the cleaning and stain-removal power you expect from Clorox; Be made with plant-and mineral- based ingredients; Use biodegradable ingredients; Never be tested on animals.”

What it DOES NOT say is that their product does any of that. That’s Greenwashing at its most duplicitous. I am taking back my Green Works product to Ralph’s today and asking for my money back. I’m tired of big corporations putting their money where their souls should be and I’m not gonna take it anymore.

Also, “Pragmatist” above says we should worry about how it cleans BEFORE we worry about how green it is, that its greeness is secondary. That attitude is EXACTLY why we’re in the environmental mess we’re in. At some point, sooner or later, likely within this century (aka, within the lives of our children and our grandchildren), the planet will reach a tipping point and slide down a slippery slope toward being unliveable by humans.

We live in the Garden of Eden, our mission is to take care of it. Pull your head out, Pragmatist, while you still have air you can breathe.

To answer Max Dricolls Green Seal question. Green seal is a group of washington DC attorneys who have turned a just cause into a profit center. Their certification is literally for sale and I am told their biggest contributor is the oil industry. Over 60 % of the greenseal cleaning products contain petro chemicals.

We need a truly non profit, affordable certifiaction process that maintains high standards for rating products on their ingrediants and the effect on the environment and not on the effect to their pocketbooks

The more the green thought leaders promote the “rub” the easier it is for the mass market of consumers to just not do anything. Ms. Lee writes about the success of products and bottom line. If Clorox sells 1 million units and makes money, guess what, they keep doing it. If they sell 1 million units and make no money, they stop. If they sell 10 units, they stop. The goal for any consumer products company is to sell its product. That’s the fundamental definition of a sustainable business – one that can pay its people and its suppliers. That’s actually a good thing and should be applauded.

Eco-progress is the goal. There is no eco-perfect. It does not exist. I applaud Clorox for bringing the alternative to the mainstream.

So, the real question is: How well does Clorox Green Works products clean in comparison to other cleaning products? If we can determine that they clean as well or better than other products, then we can worry about how green they are.

As a consumer products company, owned by stockholders, what other definition of success is there? Without the sales of its products, Clorox would cease to exist. Without putting dollars on the bottom line, Clorox becomes a non-profit, of no value to shareholders in the existing Return on Investment way of thinking (think of your 401k or IRA).

I would argue the primary responsibility of every consumer products company is to sell its products. It’s important to appreciate what I have come to call the “displacement theory” of green product purchases. For every purchase of GreenWorks, one less bottle of a fully petro-chemical based product is purchased. There is no cleaner thatt is “eco-perfect” unless you grow your own fruit and make your own cleaners from the vinegars that you make from some sort of green heat source at your home. Given that reality, Clorox’ Green Works represents significant eco-progress toward what may eventually become full displacement of all petro based cleaners. Wouldn’t that be a fine day!