What exactly constitutes a "green" product? The answers might surprise you.

A few months ago Home Depot invited the companies that supply it with the merchandise it sells to have their products included in the new Eco Options campaign. Over 60,000 products were proposed, including those made of plastic (no trees were cut down to make them), wood products (they don't contain ruinous plastic), and an electric chainsaw (hey, it's not gas-powered!).

"In somebody's mind, the products they were selling us were environmentally friendly," said Ron Jarvis, a Home Depot senior vice president who oversees the Eco Options program. "Most of what you see today in the green movement is voodoo marketing," he added. "If they say their product makes the sky bluer and the grass greener, that's just not good enough." - The New York TImes

This stance makes Jarvis something of an environmental curiosity: a green skeptic (you heard it here first, folks!). Only 2,500 of the products suggested made the Eco Options cut – roughly, a grim 4%.

And some environmentalists think that figure might be a touch generous, charging that Home Depot is guilty of perpetuating a brand of misleading marketing that lauds green while sell pesticides and other polluting items. Green, synonymous for "new and improved," has become an overly broad label that environmental groups are dismissing as greenwash (as opposed to hogwash, presumably).

"Everybody is in a mad scramble to say how green they are," said Jim O'Donnell, manager of the Sierra Club Stock Fund, which handles $50 million in a portfolio of companies it considers environmentally friendly. He added that he was hopeful the product greening would become more meaningful over time. - The New York TImes

The scramble is exacerbated by the fact that few, if any, certified standards are employed to substantiate claims of greenness. One of the stranger examples of random green designation has to be Raid's wasp and hornet killer, sold in a green can marked "Green Options" with "Natural Clove Scent."

"You almost have to be a scientist with a lab to decipher the dizzying array of claims," said Robyn Griggs Lawrence, editor in chief for Natural Home magazine. "It's hard to get information on what makes a product green." - The New York TImes

The products Jarvis has accepted for Eco Options include solar-powered landscape lighting and paints that discharge few pollutants. He has employed independent testers to help evaluate products, and has suggested product improvements. The incentive to suppliers is worth it, as sales of Eco Options products have risen about 10 percent since the program's inception this past April.