Is it greenwashing?
A lot of the environmental claims made by product marketers don’t seem to hold up. If you pay extra to reduce your environmental impact, you want to make sure those choices have the promised benefits. The Meta-Problem Method can help us navigate our options.
Complex problems are often vague and have many possible solutions. The Meta-Problem Method may lead you far away from the dilemma that started your quest. That’s because the method forces you to clarify what you really want and what you are willing to give up. It enables you to compare objectively the possible pathways and their trade offs. It prevents you locking into solutions mode too early and then doubling down on solving a low-yield problem that does not serve your goals as well as the alternatives. At the end of this process, you will have a better understanding of your priorities and how to achieve them.
Steps in the Meta-Problem Method
Dilemma
The high-level issue you are trying to address
Make environmentally sound choices based on trustworthy claims.
Goal
The changes you want to make to address the dilemma. There are usually many options.
Supporting Goals
- Support companies that are making the right choices.
- Reduce your environmental impact.
Other goals could include punishing companies that make misleading claims, other socio-economic concerns like avoiding sweatshop manufacturing, and minimizing your costs.
Problem Space
The set of problems you could chose to solve to advance your goals, plus the constraints that hold you back.
Example problems
- How can I support companies that are making the right choices? Maybe the problem to solve is “What should companies be doing and how can I recognize which ones are living up to that standard?”
- How can I reduce my environmental impact? Maybe the problem to solve is “What is the true environmental cost of me buying this product or service, and do I need it at all?”
There are many other potential problems to solve related to navigating greenwashing. Each goal has many possible problems we could link to it. Are there other problems linked to these first two goals? Which options come to mind for the other goals?
High-Yield Problems
Sometimes solving one problem helps make progress towards several goals. In this step, we identify these “two-for-the-price-of-one” problems.
Which options will advance more than one goal?
- Relying on certifications and 3rd party testing allows you to identify companies that are doing the right things, helps avoid misleading claims, and often comes bundled with other important benefits along with the environmental impacts. However, companies that make misleading claims are unaffected, and you may not reduce your environmental impact as much as you would think.
- Deciding first if you need something before considering the greenest way to get it reduces your environmental impact, leaves you less susceptible to misleading claims and can minimize your costs. However, it does not help navigate which option to choose or how to avoid greenwashing for things that you do purchase.
There are many potential solutions that will have varying effects on the set of goals. Which alternatives improve the most important goals? How might the unknown change the right path forward? What other possible solutions are there to address the dilemma?
Problem Selection
Which of the many possible options in the high-yield problem step is the best set to address the dilemma?
- Which solutions make the most sense to fight climate change?
- Which solutions will best address the dilemma?
- Which solutions will deliver the best outcome for the least amount of time, effort and money?
Implement, Learn and Adapt
Check continuously that you are still solving the best problem, as new information emerges.
Observe and learn as you go. As new information reveals itself, check continuously that you’re still solving the right problem.