You've swapped your bottled water for a filter jug, your three-ply toilet paper for rough recyclable and your Hummer for a Prius – you're definitely green now right? Wrong.

Although commendable, these actions all depend on how green the brands providing those “green products” you opt for are. And when you look into the specifics of some green initiatives, you realise there's more to deciding what's good for the planet than just the colour of its packaging. Is your product eco-friendly, or just eco-friendlier?

Cars are a great example of this fine nuance – of course a greener car is the better choice, but it remains a car. If a car manufacturer were to use images of windmills and green fields to promote its latest 4x4, without any mention of its carbon emissions, it shouldn't take too long to put 2 and CO2 together; cars, as we presently know them, pollute. No amount of pictures of flowers will reverse that fact. And while we should definitely celebrate companies who are trying to improve their industry, the planet shouldn't be used as a reason to push prices up or hide eco-unfriendly faults – it should become a priority as a matter of course.

Another prime suspect in the green stakes is food. The message emanating from the organic surge of the last decade has slowly permeated the general consciousness – food that respects the planet and our body is better than faster, cheaper, processed alternatives. But if your pesticide-free organic baby carrots have had to be shipped by plane, what hidden cost to the planet are you incurring in terms of carbon footprint?

“There is still not enough information at the point of purchase about the carbon footprint of products. The consumer should know if local products are really greener, or whether they should consider buying, for example, cabbages grown in Africa,” says Steve Garton, Executive Director of Synovate's media research group.

It's a tricky topic, no doubt about it. Thankfully, though, a host of websites have sprung up to help you see through the murky waters of green marketing, and find out who's just there for the short term eco-profit. In other words, to help you find out who has been “greenwashing”, a term defined by watchdog CorpWatch as “the phenomena of socially and environmentally destructive corporations, attempting to preserve and expand their markets or power by posing as friends of the environment.”

The most prominent of these gatekeepers is The Greenwashing Index, pointing its finger at the companies spending more time and money on advertising their eco-friendliness than actually being eco-friendly. Greenpeace has its own watchdog website, too, called Stop Greenwash, and TerraChoice goes one step further, advising marketers how to avoid unintentional greenwashing themselves.

As Garton explains: “the problem with green advertising which is obviously contrived, is it is likely to get a backlash via blogs and social media, so there is a degree of self regulation involved. But from my perspective, more companies are paying attention to CSR and carbon footprint than ever before.”

And as a recent Synovate and BBC World News climate change study showed, 72% of 18,000 people across 22 nations are concerned about climate change – but will this concern force consumers to act greener? “Sometimes people have to be forced into green behaviours,” says Garton. “People get to the supermarket and say, ‘oh it would be nice to buy green’, but in fact, green may be good for the planet, but the individual might not change unless they are required to do so.”

So, how green are you now?