The Clorox Company has announced the further expansion of its Green Works natural cleaning line with the introduction of Natural Biodegradable Cleaning Wipes, the eighth product in the line. Its launch is further testimony to the resounding success of the brand, which has gained a 42% share of the natural cleaning product market in the year since it landed on supermarket shelves.

The product line has been an enormous boon for the Sierra Club, Clorox's cause marketing partner, as well. A percentage of Green Works revenue is given to the environmental non-profit, and while the exact percentage that's donated is confidential, the 1.3 million member organization received a hefty $470,000 from Clorox for the April-December 2008 time frame. That's a whole lot of green.

Does that make Green Works an unequivocal win? That depends on who you ask. Clorox executives and investors are surely happy with the brand, and so are the folks at Sierra Club: a $52,000/month check (or thereabouts) is nothing to sneeze at.

Still, there are questions. For one thing, that 42% market share is coming at the expense of considerably smaller businesses. Clorox is using its sizable market clout to muscle its way to the top. Is it a good thing to have an established Big Player like Clorox ($5.3 billion in annual sales) set down its oversized (if not quite Proctor & Gamble-scale) foot in the green space? Do green values get diluted when the established players take over? Are the prospects for consequential change constrained?

There's a second issue, too. The Sierra Club is not certifying how environmentally friendly the Green Works line is, or even that it's green at all. Nor does the packaging imply this: it only states that Clorox is a "proud supporter" of the Sierra Club. Consumers may assume otherwise, though. It may be asking too much to expect them to distinguish between a cause marketing relationship like this one and the sort of formal third-party certification that organizations like Green Seal and EcoLogo offer.

Even when programs like this are not intentionally deceptive, they can be misleading because they're playing to a crowd that for the most part is unsophisticated about eco-labeling programs. A significant percentage of consumers who see the Sierra Club name on the package will assume the organization has vouched for the product. Eco-labeling is chaotic territory. Programs like this one add to the confusion.

The Sierra Club gave a great deal of thought to these questions and came down squarely on the side of partnering with Clorox. Clearly, money was a lure, but against that there was the potentially downside to its brand reputation for "collaborating," in the Second World War sense of the term, with a Big Bad Corporation. The organization's rationale was credible:

First: it wanted to support the mainstreaming of green products, and partnering with big corporations is the best way to do that. "Our goals are to put affordable, green products in the hands of millions of people and to encourage major manufacturing companies to green their product lines … At this time, the natural cleaning products made by smaller companies are not widely available and are not priced low enough to be considered a viable alternative for many mainstream American consumers."

Second: it did due dilience and concluded that the Green Works line and Clorox passed basic muster. "The Green Works Products meet the EPA's 'Design for the Environment' standards (their toughest safety standards) ... The Sierra Club has chosen to be selective and to partner only with companies whose environmental performance is much better than average. But we have also determined that we will not achieve our overall goal of changing consumer behavior by making affordable, natural products available to the majority of Americans if we avoid partnering with companies simply because they have had environmental violations in the past, or make some product lines which we think could be improved."

The Sierra Club summed up as follows: "The bottom line is that these products are environmentally safe, affordable, work well, and will be available to millions of people. They can help alter consumer behavior overall and will support the good work of the Sierra Club. It is our chance to use the power of our name to create an opportunity for people to do the right thing that hasn't really existed before on a large scale. And that is a great opportunity for Sierra Club and for the planet."

The Sierra Club position is deeply pragmatic and, in this observer's view, justified. Yes, it has its downsides, but doesn't every decision? And the upside is significant.