How to Avoid Greenwashing
When it comes to sustainability, what role does marketing play? On the one hand, there’s a huge opportunity to influence citizens by promoting products and services that impact the world in positive ways. But just like any for-cause effort, there can be a darker side, one in which the original intention is exploited for personal, or, often the case here, for corporate gain.
In sustainability, misleading consumers to buy products that appear good for the planet (when they actually are not) is called greenwashing. It’s when companies spend more money and time promoting green credentials than actually creating a solution or doing the research and work to ensure that there is a reduction in environmental impact. This term has been around since the 80s and has more recently spurred many other takes on corporate “washing”, such as SDG-washing, woke-washing and social-washing.
Greenwashing is inherently about false advertising, misleading consumers by using language, labels and imagery that evokes a perception of sustainability or ‘greeness’ when in fact, the product is no different from its competitors — and in some cases, it can be even worse, all whilst pretending to be green by using language, branding and colours to convey a perception of eco-cred and sustainability. By playing on people’s desires for better environmentally-performing products, greenwashing dupes people into buying things, which can lead to a lack of trust towards genuine claims of sustainability, once the false claims have been found out.
Cambridge Dictionary explains that greenwashing is designed “to make people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is.” A good analogy then is that greenwashing is to corporations as tree hugging is to individuals who say they care about the environment; it’s an outdated symbolic reference that has few actual benefits and often does more damage than good, drawing on antiquated frames of reference whilst promoting ideas and myths that slow down true progress.
Sustainability is in part about learning from the mistakes of the past and redesigning the way we deliver value into the economy in ways that don’t create negative externalities to the planet and people. It’s about doing the work to get better social, economic and environmentally performing results by changing the products, services, business models, experiences and yes, communication approaches so that we can meet our human needs in ways that don’t negatively affect the ability for us all to live prosperously on this incredible planet. So, greenwashing really makes a mess of the genuine attempts to do this, as it detracts, misdirects, confuses and often takes up air time from the companies and communities who are really doing a great job at progressing down the sustainability path.
So, here’s the really ironic part in this; greenwashing doesn’t always begin with an evil intent. Sustainability is still so misunderstood that companies can accidentally greenwash when they assume they have a product that is environmentally preferable. But because they haven't done any of the important technical investigations to ensure that the product does indeed have environmental benefits, or they have done basic googeling and assumed something is good because its made from a “biodegradable” or recyclable material for example, then they make unfounded claims and only figure out where they went wrong after they get caught out. When claims are made without any real data or research to validate it, then it’s up to watchdogs and the wider public to do the work to uncover the true nature of the product’s impact and environmental performance.
This is one of the reasons that life cycle and footprinting approaches are such important tools to knowing upfront what the impacts are so that sustainable design choices can be integrated into products right from the start. Many companies who get caught greenwashing are often not intentionally doing it, but more so are ill-informed of the impacts of different materials and make assumptions about environmental performance based on their own myths and biases.
When a company gets caught making false claims, then they’ll have to deal with the backlash. Clearly, the better option is to do the work required up front, to hire the right people, to educate staff, to ensure that the product or service has genuine environmental benefit. There are so many positives to upskilling staff and building the in-house knowledge needed to get sustainability embedded in business and design decisions so that companies can ethically and appropriately benefit from the growing market demands for socially-beneficial and environmentally-responsible products!
Whilst some greenwashing is indeed unintentional and results from a lack of knowledge about what sustainability truly is, it is also intentionally carried out through a wide range of marketing and PR efforts that are just milking people’s desire to buy better products. There are the marketing firms that stick a green logo on an ad and make unfounded claims about carbon reductions or eco-ness, just to sell more products. During COP26 this was rife, with nearly every TV commercial making unfounded claims about environmental benefits of XY or Z products.
Because marketing is so effective and influential, greenwashing can result in deep misunderstandings in the wider community about what is preferable and what is not. In many cases, basic assumptions are heavily promoted and overly simplistic solutions are advertised as being enough. Products that make claims about material properties, such as biodegradable, recyclable, renewable, etc. are recurring issues as these simply explain what a material could do, but doesn’t ensure that this will be the case. A perfect example of this is in “flushable” wipes that allegedly biodegrade once you’ve flushed them down the loo; in actuality, they’re responsible for clogging industrial sewer systems around the world! Buyer beware: terms that describe what something can do don’t mean it’s actually going to do that, because the system may not be set up to deliver on the promise. For example, only 9% of all plastic ever produced has been recycled, much of what you think is recyclable, is most likely not. This all fits into a wider behaviour of companies deflecting responsibility for their products onto the consumer, rather than taking full responsibility for the things they make (and make money from).
Thankfully, a clampdown on all this greenwashing is forthcoming. We now have more savvy customers, hyper-aware employees and ethically-motivated executives ensuring that there is more investment in the research and development needed to make sure products are actually reducing their ecological footprint and getting to a place where we, as consumers, don't have to get a PhD in what’s good or bad for the planet when making consumption choices. Many government entities are stepping in to swat back greenwashing. Recently the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has just released the Green Claims Code, which provides guidance on what can and can’t be said when making environmental claims on products and services. They are currently cracking down on greenwashing in the fashion industry, and the investment sector is also getting called out for misleading or false claims. The US has had Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims, known as the Green Guides since the mid-90s, with the most recent revision being in 2012, with more action slated.
Similarly, regulators are increasing concerns about the impacts that false green claims are having on consumer confidence, so they are quick to prosecute over false claims. The Volkswagen emissions scandal is a good example of this. There have been many high profile cases of legal action against corporations who have been caught greenwashing.
Australia has long had similar guidelines against greenwashing in place since 2007, managed by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. They have taken several companies to court (see case studies here) for misleading consumers based on false environmental claims. Under Australian Consumer Law, it is illegal to make claims that mislead a customer, including making green or environmental claims. The Green Marketing and Australian Consumer Law doc outlines this. In July 2020, New Zealand released similar guidelines.
Getting caught greenwashing can really ruin the relationship that customers have with a brand and set back genuine efforts to create sustainable products — so why not just seize the opportunity to embrace sustainability and do it right in your organization in the first place?
How to Ensure you Avoid Greenwashing
Things like adding a solar panel, making something out of bamboo or using ocean plastic waste to make a product are quickly becoming green sales gimmicks, and what we have seen in the past is that this leads to a consumer backlash when they discover that they have been duped into buying something that is not really going to help address complex environmental problems we face.
As such, firms need really clear guidance on what is acceptable and what they should do to ensure that they don't greenwash. One of the best ways to make sure your company doesn't get caught up in greenwashing is ensuring everyone is educated on the key terminology, concepts, approaches, and technical requirements of what a green product actually is, and what is not. The BBC offers a handy guide on how to spot corporate greenwashing, and this guide details the sins of greenwashing which was from work done over a decade ago but still applies today. I developed a quick guide to checking you're not greenwashing; you can access this as part of our free 3D Sustainability in Business toolkit here.
Sustainability in business is about addressing the impact of your actions from a holistic perspective, not just reducing operational impacts, or swapping out one or two products. It’s about looking at the entire system you participate in, along with all the impacts and actions you take, and ensuring that at every stage be it operational, products or experiences, there are efforts to continually improve towards being not only sustainable but also regenerative, giving back more than you take.
From a technical sustainability standpoint, all claims made about environmental performance should be backed up by clear and transparent data that ensure that the product is actually performing well across the entire product, not just in one indicator area (such as climate change). Conducting high-level scientific assessments such as life cycle assessments, performing supply chain audits, developing circular business models and ensuring that environmental management systems are in place throughout the business, all offer opportunities to level up the type of products in the market. As a general rule, if you can't measure it, you can’t claim it. So be sure that products you are creating and promoting don't fall into this trap and that the things you are buying have been explored for the actual benefit, rather than the labeled one.
To get to a genuinely sustainable future, we need full systems redesign, and that requires companies investing in the R&D needed to assess their current issues and then hiring the right people to design the solutions that create measurably-beneficial sustainable and circular products and businesses. Tools such as sustainable design and life cycle thinking are very useful in assessing and designing better-performing products. Circular economy business strategies also work towards long-term solutions, rather than short-term fixes. Consumers will continue to demand greener products, which means there will be companies who continue to greenwash. But they will always get caught, and the cost of cleaning up after the mess is often way greater than the upfront cost of doing the work to get the product right in the first place.
