As a tool for communication and branding manager to prevent greenwashing, Terra Choice (2010) formulated the 7 sins of greenwashing as follows:

1. Sin of the Hidden Trade-off
A claim suggesting that a product is ‘green’ based on a narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues. For instance, the end product could be very green, while the process was very polluting.

2. Sin of No Proof
An environmental claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible supporting information or by a reliable third-party certification.

3. Sin of Vagueness
A claim that is so poorly defined or broad that its real meaning is likely to be misunderstood by the consumer.

4. Sin of Irrelevance
An environmental claim that may be truthful but is unimportant or unhelpful for consumers seeking environmentally preferable products. For instance, some products contain messages that there are no CFC’s used. This is irrelevant because the use of CFC’s is already forbidden since 1995 in EU countries.

5. Sin of Lesser of Two Evils
A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting the consumer from the greater environmental impacts of the category as a whole. This happens for example with organic cigarettes.

6. Sin of Fibbing
Environmental claims that are simply false.

7. Sin of worshipping false labels
A product that, through either words or images, gives the impression of third-party endorsement where no such endorsement exists; fake labels, in other words.
 

Source: Terra Choice 2010 (http://sinsofgreenwashing.org/)