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Almost all marketing/broadcast communication of supposedly familiar, but complicated, environmental concepts has been drilled down into a simple phrase that allows people to dismiss or diminish the issue -- hence the surreal masterpiece of a few decades ago, "dolphin-safe tuna."
Carbon-neutral probably evolved from "carbon dioxide neutral" when too many people were tripped up and accidentally referred to it as "carbon monoxide neutral."
It's much easier to understand if you remind yourself that a lot of the media and advertising language surrounding science is devised by professional communicators (public relations people, advertisers) and tested by focus groups to see which language is the most palatable and positive.
If you want to communicate with your clients and much of the mainstream, you'll accept such phrases when they use them and then figure out a way to be more precise on your end without them disliking or not understanding you. (I'm not trying to be condescending here, just pointing out that it might be a challenge since not everyone is as invested as you in the issue or language.)
