By Ian Hall “We only use biodegradable plastic”. This was a claim made by a resort hotel in support of their responsible tourism policy. Upon further investigation the claim was clarified to mean degradable plastic. Some plastics marked as ‘degradable’ might not be as environmentally-friendly as consumers think. The implications go beyond greenwashing. In our rush to damn plastic bags and bottles, environmentalists may have compromised efforts to recycle. Degradable plastic turns out to mean that the plastic...

By Ian Hall Here's a case study about greenwashing the envrionmental impacts of tourism. In this story, imagine I am the sustainability manager of a resort hotel which is keen to do the right thing by practising responsible tourism. I learn of a laundry detergent supplier who claims that their product is environmentally friendly and think Great! we can use this product and advertise the fact in our green marketing. As a hotel I am a consumer of laundry detergents and I need to be able to verify that this product is truly...