The typical image of the Mediterranean is a blue sea with white-walled houses clinging to the rocky landscape. Every spring, after the Easter processions when the Mistral stops blowing, house-proud citizens freshen up those walls with a bucket of whitewash.

The power of a simple mixture of lime, chalk and water to hide the ravages of a year's wear and tear is so compelling it has entered the language. When a politician puts the best face on a difficult policy, we accuse them of 'whitewashing' the truth.

The language lives and whitewash has now acquired a green tinge as companies appeal to environmentally careful consumers. Some of them claim green credentials where no green credentials exist. Culprits range from “green phones” through “eco-credit cards” to “clean, green nuclear power”. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has had to step in and regulate the offset of carbon dioxide emissions and provide guidelines and definitions for the term “climate neutral”.

Your challenge is to develop the necessary X-ray vision to see past the greenwash to the facts underneath. A mixture of specific examples and general principles are provided here to hone your green wash detectors.