Greenwashing - what is it and how to avoid it

The way we consider our consumption habits are changing, which means green is the new black. According to the Globescan study of 2020, 74% of the respondents claim they want to reduce their impact on the environment and nature by a significant amount. Each product we purchase affects the environment, so as consumers become more aware, they are looking for ethical purchasing solutions and greener alternatives.

With this in mind, businesses and brands have begun to advertise eco-friendly products. But branding something as eco-friendly, sustainable, or green does not mean that it always is. Many companies have put up a facade of sustainability while engaging in activities that are not so good for the environment. This is called “greenwashing”. In this article, you will learn what this concept means and how you can be aware of it and avoid it.

We can identify greenwashing when companies invest more time and money on marketing them and their products as environmentally friendly instead of putting the efforts into minimising their true environmental impact. Brands and companies practising greenwashing generally use fuzzy words like “green”, “vegan”, “eco-friendly” as a marketing practice without accountability for their actions as a whole. It is used to impress environmentally conscious consumers and to influence their buying choices.

The term was initially coined by the environmental activist Jay Westerveld in 1986. Still, it was made a trending topic in August 2021 when the activist Greta Thunberg made a claim about the fashion industry and this topic: “Many make it look as if the fashion industry is starting to take responsibility, spending fantasy amounts on campaigns portraying themselves as ”sustainable”, ”ethical”, ”green”, ”climate neutral” or ”fair”. But let’s be clear: This is rarely anything but pure greenwash.”

Unfortunately, there are many examples of organisations engaging in greenwashing nowadays. One classic example is that of Volkswagen, which hid the true extent of emissions in its cars. The cars were being advertised as low-emissions and eco-friendly in marketing campaigns, but in fact, they were emitting nitrogen oxide pollutants up to 40 times the legal limit. After all, they were forced to admit they were using software that allowed the car's system to identify when emissions were tested to perform with lower engine power. Greenwashing can be used for different reasons.

As seen before, there is a pressure to comply, to satisfy conscious consumerism that people are asking for. Hence, companies feel the pressure to show some environmental concern into their business. There are cases in which it is used as a marketing tool and PR effort to drive profit rather than to take environmental responsibility. Research shows consumers are available to pay more for eco-conscious products. But in fact, most of the time, the intentions of companies are not bad. They simply don’t know what they are doing. They miss the knowledge on environmental expertise as a whole, taking the business to prioritise superficially appealing demands.

Understand what is good for the environment implies research and investment, taking the time to take the concept around all the operations stages, not only what is beneath consumers’ eyes. Appearing environmental responsible without actively making the changes does not contribute to the fundamental issue: solve the issues we face on the planet, like climate change, plastic ocean pollution, and air pollution. This is the big issue with greenwashing, and it is not helping. On the opposite, it misdirects environmentally conscious customers towards not-so-good solutions. And takes up valuable opportunities for circular economy initiatives.

As consumers, we have the right and the power to look for greenwashing by not trusting everything we read and see at first sight. It can be challenging enough, but every one of us should pressure companies to create truly sustainable and viable solutions. We need to identify and call out greenwashing to revert this situation. Before buying your next pair of shoes, please take into consideration these steps: Watch out for the green buzzwords that come with no apparent meaning or without explanation for using them, like “eco-friendly”, “recycled”, “sustainable”, “vegan”, etc.;

Always search on the product for proof of the claim and some evidence of it; Look for certifications. Most of the time genuinely sustainable products are certified by a third-party organisation; Do your research to find more information on the company, why that claims are being used, and what are the details supporting them; Only trust information you can understand, meaning if the explanation is too scientific, you need to double-check it before you trust it; Look for all the context of the product. Some products or some attributes of the products can be green, but its host company may not be.