Greenwashing
Greenwashing — is a creation of a false eco-friendly impression for products to mislead the consumers. Greenwashing became widespread since the trend for responsible consumption and environmental compatibility was getting stronger. The most well-known case of greenwashing is marking the product as made from recycled materials when this isn’t true, or part of the materials can’t be recycled.
What Is Greenwashing
The eco-friendly products have better sales. When people buy such products they suppose that they help to decrease the damage to nature and improve the quality of life. That’s why some companies spend money on marketing to look more socially responsible instead of implying real ecological practices.
The company resorts to greenwashing because the compatibility with the ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria becomes more and more important for the investors. ESG principles are the characteristics of corporate management reflecting its involvement in solving environmental, social, and managerial problems. Not all companies are ready to conduct the ESG audit and not all companies can pass it. So the false impression of eco-friendliness allows them to attract consumers and investors.
Examples of greenwashing:
- False information. The company indicates that the product is safe for the environment when in reality it causes damage.
- Highlighting advantages and concealment of information. The company positions the good as totally safe for the environment when in reality it’s partly safe.
- Meaningless marking. The product may have stickers or markings with trees, leaves, or inscriptions “eco-friendly”, “safe for environment”, or marks of non-existent institutions.
- Inappropriate utilization of used goods. The company provides discounts for consumers that bring used goods (clothing, mobile phones) and says that the goods will be recycled. But in reality, they go to the waste deposit.
- Fake certification. The company prints a good with the mark of a well-known institution when in reality, this institution has never tested this product.
- Providing outdated information. The company indicates that a product is free from a certain substance when this substance has been prohibited in production for a long time.
- Untraceable strategy. The company promises that every product will be safe for the environment by year N. Everyone believes in this promise, and when the year N comes, no one remembers it.
One of the most obvious cases of greenwashing has been detected in some hotels. The hotels have been asking the guests to send the sheets and towels to the laundry as little as possible to reduce the dumping of washing substances in the environment. But despite this request, the hotels were paying zero attention to their real issues like inappropriate utilization of garbage.
How to Avoid Greenwashing
Greenwashing creates numerous problems for ecology and consumers. It allows the companies to hide the dangerous practices and undermine confidence in eco-friendly goods. The identification of greenwashing is quite complicated because it requires investigating all supply chains between the company and contractors. Often the waste management company delivers the garbage to the landfill sites of developing countries, where there is no sorting and waste processing.
Another issue is recycling and reusing themselves. Most goods are made of several materials that are hard to divide. Some types of plastic aren’t recyclable. Nowadays, scientists try to develop various ways of recycling like pyrolysis or depolymerization, but these methods are technically sophisticated.
And the biggest issue is the cost of the equipment for processing and recycling. It is very expensive and difficult to use, that's why the companies working in the field of recycling have significant tax exemptions. To cover the working expenses for such a manufacturing line the company needs a stable source of waste for recycling, but it’s not always possible.
Nevertheless, there are methods to spot greenwashing. The first way is to check whether the certificate on the package is really important. If the marking doesn’t belong to any significant ecological certification, it is just marketing and nothing more.
The second way is to learn more about the package of a good. There are types of packages such as the Tetra Pack or foil that are hard to recycle. Some types of plastic can’t be recycled at all in some countries (mixed plastic, polyvinyl chloride). So the goods in these packages can’t be considered eco-friendly.
The company can take measures to avoid the accusation of greenwashing:
- Application of ESG principles. It is necessary to check whether the company complies with these principles.
- Clear language. It is inappropriate to mislead the consumer by using the word “natural” or “safe for environment” meaninglessly.
- “Green” strategy. The ecological agenda should be a part of the long-term development of the company, and this agenda should be indicated in the development strategy.
- Regular reporting. If the company already has an ecological agenda, the results of these actions should be regularly reported and available for familiarization.
