Wood Stove Industry Charged with Making Deceptive Environmental Claims
You’ve probably encountered it: greenwashing by the wood stove industry. They make hand-wavy claims about how their products are “environmentally friendly,” that wood burning is “carbon neutral,” and even “good for the environment.”
These misleading marketing claims, which are intended to persuade consumers to buy new “certified” wood stoves, have been repeated so many times that many people have fallen for them. It helps that these claims are what consumers want to hear—so they can feel better about doing something they want to do anyway. It’s the same marketing strategy successfully used by the tobacco industry to sell “light” cigarettes.
But in Denmark, officials have finally seen enough. They stepped in and charged that 23 companies had violated the Marketing Practices Act with their deceptive environmental claims about wood burning.
Denmark’s Consumer Ombudsman ruled that wood stoves, firewood, and wood pellets may no longer be marketed as environmentally friendly or carbon neutral—because these claims are false.
In a statement, the Consumer Ombudsman wrote:
When companies market wood-burning stoves and firewood, they must not give consumers the mistaken impression that heating by burning wood is environmentally friendly. It is misleading and therefore contrary to the Marketing Act.
The Ombudsman shined a long overdue spotlight on the Swan certification scheme, which is comparable to EPA certified wood stoves here in the United States, noting that these certified wood stoves still emit “environmentally harmful particles…The marketing must therefore not give the consumer the impression that burning wood in a Nordic Swan-labeled stove is less harmful than it is.”
They also ruled that wood-burning stoves can no longer be marketed as being carbon neutral, because it is misleading. Burning wood emits CO2 as well as other climate pollutants. In fact, for the same amount of heat, burning wood releases more CO2 than fossil fuels.
The Danish Ombudsman stated that while virtually the entire industry had engaged in marketing their products as being less harmful to the environment than they actually are, they found one company’s claims to be so deceptive that they referred the matter to the police.
