I asked 8 people in my office, “what is greenwashing?” and received interesting responses such as:
- Is it to do with washing clothes? Or coloured clothes
- Not using too much water
- Eco-friendly, maybe a bag for eco friendly items, could be for children
- Cleaning plastics
- Not using tumble dryers, having a shorter washing cycle or keeping at 30°
- Turning underwear inside out
- Cutting down on meat
- Going paperless
- Going to the river to wash clothes
I became aware of the term ‘Greenwashing’ in 2017 as I subscribe to quite a number of sustainability groups. Only one of my colleagues knew what Greenwashing was and I’m not sure how I feel about this.
Maybe a bit surprised, maybe a tinge of disappointment, maybe a little humorous (especially turning underwear inside out!). I had hoped that the term was more widely known however, it is not for me to judge and after we had finished giggling, I was able to simply share my thoughts on Greenwashing and what this means to the everyday consumer.
The most straightforward way to describe Greenwashing is claims of sustainable products or services without the evidence or data to back it up.
Companies accused of Greenwashing is not limited to one particular sector and have included the following big giants:
- McDonald’s
- Royal Dutch Shell
- Volkswagen
- Sea World
- Coca-Cola
- Nestlé
- Walmart
- BP
- ExxonMobil
- Starbucks
- IKEA
- Major Banks including JP Morgan, Citibank and Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Barclays, Bank of China, HSBC, Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank
- Fast Fashion Brands such as H&M, Zara and Uniqlo
The above is sourced from https://energytracker.asia/greenwashing-examples-of-top-companies/ and https://earth.org/greenwashing-companies-corporations/
In the UK, there are currently no Regulations to curb Greenwashing however, misleading claims may fall under misrepresentation or consumer protection laws which prevent false advertising.
Financial Times published a story yesterday (25/10/22) https://www.ft.com/content/92aadaaf-96f0-4945-8ed4-272cfbe68464 which prompted me to ask my colleagues my initial question and write this post. In the article, FT advise that:
The UK’s financial regulator has moved to clamp down on “greenwashing” with proposed restrictions on investment managers using terms such as “green” and “ESG” in fund marketing and a new set of consumer-friendly labels for sustainable investments.
I lightly assume that this may have been due to HSBC bank being called out on a series of misleading adverts amid Greenwashing claims and a Nationwide advertising campaign being pulled. I do hope that actions taken by Watchdog have a negative impact on companies’ reputation when they try to capitalise on growing climate concerns and the uncertain or limited knowledge that the majority of us hold on this topic.
Examples of Greenwashing could be:
- The description on the packaging of a plastic product stating ‘Recyclable!’ however, it is unclear whether the packaging, the product or only components of the product are recyclable
- Clothing described as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘sustainable’ but it is unclear, vague and unverifiable
- Plastic straws being replaced by paper straws that are also not recyclable
- Using advertisements to show how to recycle and help the environment which could misled consumers into believing the brand is making attempts to practice what they preach when in reality they are doing nothing different to before they made the advert
- Advising that the product can be recycled when in reality, recycling plants cannot accept the plastic, in some cases this can also cause contamination to other items that can be recycled
- Claiming ingredients are non-toxic even though the product does in fact cause harm to humans, animals and the environment
- Claiming that emissions are lower than they actually are
- Claiming to be net-zero, when the reality is that the company off-sets or buys carbon credits and does very little to change their everyday practices
Greenwashing is not ok. It is not ok to capitalise on growing climate concerns. It is not ok to mislead consumers. It is not ok to advise healthy natural products when they are in fact, not. It is not ok to advise or claim that you are a net-zero company because you ‘off-set your emissions by planting trees in a third world country’ when your practices have not changed in the slightest.
It is ok for companies to try to improve on their sustainability. It is ok for companies to begin a baseline of where they are at sustainability-wise. It is ok to show small or big improvements, year-on-year. It is ok to admit that we are just starting to learn more about how to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly.
It is ok to be honest.
The key take-away is that, if you don’t have the data to backup your claims then you are probably Greenwashing.
