How Green Are Burt And His Bees?

I will be analyzing Burt’s Bees products and if they commit any of the seven sins as proposed by TerraChoice. This is something that really hits home for me because I use a number of different Burt’s Bees products including their lip balm, lotion, face wash, shampoo and conditioner. I am hoping to find that they are not guilty, but we shall see.

 

No proof – This is a tricky one. Some of their products have a National Products Association (NPA) certification, but others don’t. I would say for the ones that do not, there is no proof to their claim of being 100% or 98.9% natural, depending on which product you are looking at. However, for the ones that do have the certification, they have proof, and are not sinning.

Hidden Trade Off – While many of their products have these NPA certifications and claim to be 98% natural (or something like that). They still have ingredients like limonene which has been listed as a Group 3 carcinogen, meaning that while there is no proof it causes harm to humans, it is not ruled out as a possibility. Overall though, I would say they don’t really commit this sin.

Smoke & Mirrors – They point out on their website that some of their products are 99% natural and people often ask, “Why not 100% natural? What’s the last 1%?” Their answer is that they occasionally have to use preservatives in their products that they have yet to find in a natural form. They then add that they are working their best to find natural preservatives that work as well or better for their products, which is definitely trying to shift the attention away a little bit, but at the same time, it is a valid point and they do still mention that they are almost there.

Vagueness – All of their products talk about a natural level. This one is bluntly explained on TerraChoice. “‘All-natural’ doesn’t always mean ‘healthy'”. They are absolutely right. There are a number of ingredients on here that while may not be proven to be carcinogenic, are still under question and aren’t necessarily healthy or safe.

False Labels – Burt’s Bees products seem to be okay on this one. They don’t really market nonsense on their products. Most things are pretty straight forward.

Irrelevant – Everything on here looks good. While, one product mentions there are no pthalates, it is still legal in certain uses. (It is illegal in many children’s products and toys as of 2008).

Bold Lies – All of the labels appear to be accurate. They didn’t slap any random labels on here or anything. Any labels have justification.

Overall these products do not appear to be greenwashed, which makes me happy. While there are a few discrepancies, none of them are really worth worrying about considering the product is much more green than the standard cosmetics.

http://www.burtsbees.com/Our-Natural-Standards/nature-standard,default,pg.html

Click to access cpsia.pdf

http://www.npainfo.org/NPA/Certification/NaturalSealCertification/PersonalCare/NPA/NaturalSealCertification/NPANaturalStandardforPersonalCareProducts.aspx?hkey=443d55de-e315-42ee-918b-2960452d9fe4

~David Bohm