Here's a great example of greenwashing that got called out by bloggers and caused a stir. Crane Paper, the makers of many beautiful high-end papers, have come out with a new line of 100% cotton paper. Their identity firm C&G Parnters is claiming (this link has been removed from their site): "This is the world's greenest paper. No trees or wood fiber go into it because is entirely made of cotton." In addition to some hasty copywriting, their Green Claim (GC), doesn't hold up.

It's easy to spot the lack of trees does not equal green, but savvy green minded people are increasingly looking all the way back through the production process to determine the total impact of a product.

The cotton used at Crane is a byproduct of industrial mills, where fibers are swept off the floor and become paper, just like how the company started by collecting rags in 1805, or so goes their story. But the original cotton product has already done its damage, something which carries over to all products associated with it. Conventionally grown cotton accounts for 25% of the world's insecticide use and 10% of its pesticides, according to the Pesticide Action Network. Detectable levels of these chemicals then appear in the groudwater of states where cotton is grown. And with a growing period of 6 months, cotton also requires an enormous amount of fresh water.

Crane's own environmental site has information on their commendable environmental efforts, including using water-based inks and treating wastewater to be composted to topsoil.