The next time you're thinking of building a fire in your conventional wood fireplace, burn a...

Here's an unfortunate trend, and one that eco-friendly consumers need to watch out for. Derived from the term "whitewashing," it is used when a company or product claims to be environmentally responsible when in fact it is anything but. Greenwashing takes many forms, from a snack food maker claiming "natural" ingredients-a term that can mean almost anything-in the hopes that shoppers will assume they're making a healthy buy, to automakers who claim to be eco-friendly while continuing to mass produce gas guzzlers. One of the dangers of these dirty tactics is that consumers may end up cynical, and reject the green movement rather than embrace it. Regulations on labeling help somewhat, but it takes diligence to really be certain you're making an eco-savvy choice.

Many catalogs that arrive in people's mailboxes across the nation end up going straight to the...