Take a peek around any trade show that caters to apparel, housewares, really any consumer product under the sun, and you’ll probably notice that a good many of those companies boast how eco-friendly they are. Their T-shirts are made with 100% recycled cotton and the production process uses X% less water than others. Their drinkware products are made from recycled single-use bottles salvaged from the Chesapeake Bay. It all sounds great, because it is. And many consumers feel better when we know we’re buying a product from an ethical company. But it’s not always easy to verify that a company’s environmental promises are anything beyond surface-level.