I am a buyer and seller on ebay. Fancying myself as “green”, at least on the seller side, I checked out eBay’s “Green Team” soon after hearing about it.

Here is how eBay promotes joining their “Green Team”:


Curious and interested, I joined through my primary seller account.

I’m not very impressed beyond what their promotional slogan actually should be:


For starters, eBay states that if I “choose to reuse”, they will “protect an acre of forest”.

If I “choose to reuse” [which I have been doing for years], it is not clear how I am supposed to do so in a verifiable way. If I say I’m “green”, my products are “used” and/or my shipping materials are “renewable” or “reusable” or “reused”, how does eBay verify that what I say is true? I could be green-washing. Ebay could be green-washing.

Apart from this, how will eBay actively “protect an acre of forest” by encouraging sellers to sell “green” products? I know that when I reuse shipping materials I am doing the environment good, but people -- and sometimes I, too -- would like to link my reused cardboard box to a tree that wasn't cut down [or something similar].

The same questions apply to buyers who sign up for the “Green Team”, as there is a section to search for and buy “green” products. How does eBay, let alone the buyer, know that the products being offered through this section of their site actually are “green”, “used” “renewable”, “reusable” and/or “reused”? How does purchasing such products enable eBay to “protect an acre of forest”? The sellers could be green-washing. Ebay could be green-washing.

Let us forget the verification and/or certification of “green”. What about advertising? There is no obvious “I’m Green!” badge an eBay seller can place, or have placed by signing up for the “Green Team”, anywhere within their account, in their shop or on their listings. Other companies clearly offer this by default; my webhosting company, DreamHost, makes “I’m Green!” badges easily available for everyone who hosts with them and I take advantage of that on all my websites I host with them. Granted such a badge could be a level up on the green-washing, but could also add a level up for identifying who’s selling “green” and who isn’t if it’s certifiable and/or verifiable.

There is no obvious benefit to signing up, at least not yet. Unless and until eBay improves its “Green Team” by adding some sort of verification, don’t bother. It seems too much like green-washing otherwise.