Companies use a method called LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), to judge whether the choices they make is truly green. This involves studying the implication/costs of a product from raw material to final disposal. This includes the transportation cost (often where green, loses its green-ness), potential cost from needing additional processing. For example, a product might need twice the amount of water to be made organically, then the burden to our fresh water supply might outweigh the organic benefit. This mentality is one I think we can all consider in our daily life.
For example, I use to avoid buying meat that came prepackaged in individual packages. We were all taught the additional burden to our landfill. However, when I got home, I still ended up separating it into ziplock bags. Now I might use less bags than the individual wrapping, but these ziplock bags are much more durable than the cheap individual packaging the meat came in. Am I really lessening the space at landfills? Especially since I do not know if those individual packaging might have been produced by sugar cane versus petroleum, so less harmful to our limited resources.
Estimating the true cost of my choices is difficult or even impossible, but truly considering whether a product is green beyond what its label says takes only a moment.