[Dalya’s Note: This guest post by Christopher Zara, writer at International Business Times, was originally published on September 16, 2013 on International Business Times.]

As companies strive to create more environmentally friendly products, one of the biggest challenges for marketers is how to pitch those products without “greenwashing,” a term applied to marketing spin that makes deceptive or exaggerated environmental claims.

It’s an issue we’re seeing more and more of these days. Last month, as International Business Times reported, the Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) was accused of overstating the environmental benefits of its PlantBottle packaging, using marketing materials that included excessive green coloring, environmentally friendly images (butterflies, flowers, etc.) and a circular logo that mimicked the universal symbol for recycling. In response, a high-ranking Danish consumer official requested that the multinational beverage giant revamp its pitch.

But before companies can avoid greenwashing, they have to be able to recognize it. And in an industry where research and development are evolving at an increasingly rapid pace, that’s not always so easy. Jacquelyn Ottman, an independent consultant who focuses on green marketing and eco-innovation, said greenwashing often begins not as intentional deception by corporate giants but as well-meaning ideas cooked up by Madison Avenue executives who may not grasp the finer intricacies of green technologies and their benefits.

“A lot of greenwash is inadvertent,” she said in a phone interview. “The ad agency people really don’t understand this that well, and so they misguide the clients. And the clients don’t understand it enough to say, ‘Thank you very much, but we’re not going to go there.’”

Ottman worked in advertising for 12 years before she founded J. Ottman Consulting Inc. in 1989. She said that high-profile stories about exaggerated claims by Coca-Cola may attract the lion’s share of attention, but it’s often smaller companies, which lack the manpower to put their marketing materials through a legal litmus test, that find themselves on the receiving end of greenwashing accusations.

“It’s usually the little guys,” she said. “Larger companies have 12 legal guys on staff. They have clearance from magazines. They have a long history of avoiding making deceptive claims in general.”

To be continued in Part 2…