There was a great article on greenwashingin The Boston Globe the other day. Since consumers will be spending so much on green products in the next decade, we had better do our homework and make sure that products really ARE green, not greenwashed.

The eight-passenger [Chevy Tahoe] vehicle is plastered with "hybrid" labels. An automobile magazine panel that included the executive director of The Sierra Club named it the "Green Car of the Year."

But the Tahoe gets only about 20 miles per gallon - not much better than the nonhybrid Honda Pilot SUV, which also seats eight. The celebrated Toyota Prius gets around 46 miles per gallon.

"How a 6,000-pound behemoth can be the green car of the year is beyond me," said David Champion, director of Consumer Reports Auto Test Division. "It's a marketing exercise rather than reality."