Home Depot really wants you to think of their much ballyhoo’d “Eco Options” program as a quick, easy and painless way to be an environmentalist.

The program is certainly better than, you know, not having one at all, but does it impress Consumer Reports?

Nah. Kristi Wiedemann, Science and Policy Analyst for GreenerChoices.org, Consumer Reports’ eco-riffic website, went shopping at Home Depot to see if the program lived up to its hype. It didn’t.

She found misplaced signs, disorganized displays, labels that didn’t really mean much of anything and products that were “green” because they met current environmental standards that really aren’t that high in the first place.

Kristi also makes a good point about buying products that last. If you can use it longer and repair it when it breaks there’s less of a chance it will end up in a landfill. Eco Options sort of leaves that part out.

When all has been said and done, Eco Options is better than nothing, but not as good as doing the research for yourself and making informed choices about what you buy.

Eco Options: An inside look [Consumer Reports]

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