Primers – The GW Point Source

August 12, 2023October 4, 2023

The Potential for Greenwashing from “Green” Trademarks and Marketing

By Vanessa Turk

The world is moving into an era of heightened environmental consciousness. This is driving businesses to enhance their commitment to sustainable practices. Registering a green trademark is one of many ways for a business to implement more sustainable practices, but it comes with the potential for greenwashing, which can have adverse legal consequences. Greenwashing is the practice of making a product or practice appear more environmentally friendly than it really is by using unsubstantiated and misleading claims about the sustainability of products, services, or practices.

July 28, 2023October 2, 2023

An Introduction to U.S. State Environmental Rights Amendments

By Johanna Adashek

Environmental rights declare the right of people to a certain level of environmental protection, just as civil rights cement the people’s rights to due process or freedom of speech. Environmental rights can be in the form of a law, constitutional amendment, or most recently, within a UN Declaration. This post will focus mainly on environmental rights amendments (ERAs), or those enumerated within a constitution. Further, while dozens of countries have ERAs within their constitutions, this post will focus on ERAs within U.S. state constitutions. This post will review the states with ERAs and different approaches to ERA protections, discuss the utility of ERAs, and describe recent developments involving ERAs.

April 3, 2023September 25, 2023

A Primer on Biden’s 30 by 30 Plan

By Johanna Adashek

What is Biden’s 30 by 30 plan?

The plan originated from Executive Order 14008 “Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad,” published on January 27, 2021. Sections 216 of the Executive Order tasked various government agencies with the goal of conserving 30% of U.S. land and waters by 2030, hence the short reference: “30 by 30.” The Executive Order itself did not create detailed directives for achieving this goal, instead, it initiated processes for stakeholder participation, measuring progress, and creating future strategies. While the progress of steps taken to date is hard to measure, this is the first conservation goal that the federal government has ever set. Approximately 12% of land, 11% of freshwater, and 26% of ocean waters in the U.S. has some level of protection to date. This blog post (1) examines why protecting and conserving lands and waters is so vital; (2) identifies steps taken to achieve the 30 by 30 goal thus far; and (3) considers potential future measures that can be taken to reach the 30 by 30 goal.

March 17, 2023May 2, 2023

Environmental Personhood and the Rights of Rivers

By Monishaa Suresh

This is the first entry of a two-part post on environmental personhood. It defines and explains the history of environmental personhood both domestically and internationally. The second post explores the concept of legal personhood for rivers with a focus on two rivers that have already been granted personhood — the Whanganui in New Zealand and the Atrato in Colombia.

“Legal personhood” can be conferred to non-human entities, essentially treating them as people for limited legal purposes such as allowing the entities to sue, own property, and enter into contracts. This is not a new concept as corporations have long been considered “legal persons.” This then begs the question: if we can confer such legal protection to multi-billion dollar corporations, why can’t we do the same for the environment?

January 18, 2023October 2, 2023

What are PFAS? A Primer on Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances

By Johanna Adashek

This blog post is the first of a two-part post on PFAS. This post defines, explains the history and usage of, and summarizes the basic science of PFAS. It also covers recent federal regulatory initiatives addressing PFAS. The next post in the series explores the history of one PFAS: PFOA, with a focus on the story of Rob Bilott’s fight against the chemical companies behind PFOA.

Sometimes referred to as “forever chemicals,” PFAS are synthetic, or man-made, chemicals found almost ubiquitously in the air, water, and soil. They bioaccumulate and biopersist in the bloodstream and have been tied to different cancers and fertility problems. The term PFAS refers to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. There are thousands of PFAS; the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) updates a master list called PFASMASTER that additionally includes “partially fluorinated substances, polymers, and ill-defined reaction products.” The list grows continuously larger and, as of August 2022, includes more than 12,000 chemicals. Companies began manufacturing PFAS in the 1940s and, despite widespread evidence of their harm, these harmful chemicals are still manufactured today. PFAS can be found in nonstick cookware, water-repellent clothing, stain resistant fabrics, shaving cream, cosmetics, firefighting foams, and even tap water.^[1]