Causes.com
| 10.26.22
5 Examples of Greenwashing
How do you feel about companies greenwashing their products?
The impacts of climate change become more and more evident each year, leaving the public to wonder what an individual can do to help combat the crisis. People have found that one of the easiest forms of activism is supporting brands that value environmental consciousness and sustainable choices.
Companies are seeing the increasing interest in eco-products and learning that by marketing themselves as environmentally friendly, they can draw in a more extensive consumer base. This is a tactic known as greenwashing. Some brands take simple actions, like turning a container green or tagging a product with a seemingly environmentally friendly icon, while others create entire campaigns to deceive their audience.
Here are five examples of greenwashing that you might have seen in recent years.
BP
- Oil and gas company BP was under scrutiny in the early 2000s after various accidents — explosions, spills, leaks, and deaths — from their infrastructure. These incidents almost ruined the company's reputation. So, why didn't they?
- BP did a complete “green” rebranding, marketing itself as a sustainable company with a simple logo change, a series of eco-friendly advertising campaigns, and announcing alternative energy projects. Then CEO John Browne was crowned the “green oilman,” and the public saw BP as a hero of the oil and gas sector. Behind the closed doors, BP was (and still is) funneling mass amounts of money into fossil fuels and investing very little into renewable energy sources, disproportionately representing their company's true actions.
- In recent years, researchers have uncovered BP's greenwashing techniques and its successful attempt at misleading the public into believing it is an eco-champion. actions were
- BP's two-decade-long campaign is still going strong, showing the powerful impact of greenwashing.
Coca-Cola
- Researchers found that Coca-Cola made various claims about its eco-friendly plastic packaging rooted in hyperbole and falsehoods. The company's exaggerated attempts to create sustainable plastic and address the pollution crisis were both greenwashing campaigns designed to mislead consumers.
- Environmentalists called out Coca-Cola for putting millions towards promoting their 25% marine plastic bottles, all while failing to mention that the company is the world’s number one plastic polluter, even with this green initiative. With more than 500 brands selling more than 100 billion plastic bottles every year, advocates are finding the company's claims and goals to be filled with empty promises.
- Coca-Cola's greenwashing campaign intentionally misled customers into believing the company was taking significant action against climate change.
Volkswagen
- In 2015, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) caught Volkswagen cheating on vehicle emissions tests in the U.S. The agency found that the company installed a “defeat device” in diesel engines to detect when they were being tested and change the data accordingly to improve results.
- While pushing a vast campaign to market new low-emission vehicles, the company was forced to admit that about 11 million cars worldwide had this software.
- The EPA revealed Volkswagen's straightforward greenwashing actions, in which the company’s effort to deceive its customers and government agencies was undeniable. While environmental groups mocked the company with fake advertisements, this greenwashing controversy didn’t do much to tarnish its reputation or impact its sales, proving how easily hidden and forgotten greenwashing can be.
Eco icons
- Green, earthy, and sustainable icons are frequently used on packaging to make a product look eco-friendly. However, there’s little truth behind these “standards” and "certifications," and most of the time, they're completely fabricated.
- On top of these icons, it’s easy for companies to use words like “natural” on their products since the terms hold no legal definitions. This ambiguity allows the company to not abide by any regulations, all while tricking a consumer into thinking they're buying an eco-friendly product. Some products are labeled as “natural” when just a few ingredients are derived from a plant or animal yet are still heavily processed.
- Many companies will put an earthy feel to their products by adding natural looking earth tones, including an image of a natural environment, creating a “rustic” look to the product, and more.
H&M
- H&M consistently claims that it's a "green" company with eco-conscious billboards, sustainability tags, and a scorecard system to inform consumers about the environmental soundness of its products. However, a report by Quartz found that H&M’s misinformed its customers about a significant portion of its product’s sustainability ranking.
- Another group found that H&M fails to paint the whole picture behind the manufacturing of its products when boasting about its sustainability successes. The company was even caught mixing up data when it stated certain products used 30% less water when, in reality, the product used 30% more water. Additionally, one researcher found that the company advertised green initiatives, which were more truly cost-saving efforts, breaking its brand promise of sustainable fashion.
So, how do you feel about companies greenwashing their products? Will you be on the lookout for greenwashing?
-Jamie Epstein
(Photo credit: iStock/Arkadiusz Warguła)
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I really hate the big oil green ads. They claim to be carbon neutral by buying carboin credits from companies who pledge to not clear cut their trees. The problem is that these companies have claimed the lands that are part of federal reserves, arboretums, or even national forests - lands that the companies selling the credits often have no authority nor ownership rights to make the pledge. Even if they owned the properties outright, how does not making the problem worse qualify as a credit?
The other ads I have seen talk about how they are going green by investing in bio-fuels. Bio-fuels get their energy by burning carbon and to get equivalent power to refined process fuels would have to burn an equivalent amount of carbon. In other words these efforts which sound good actually do othing at all except replace fosssil fuels with biofuels which emit the same levels of CO2 to release the same energy as fossil fuels do.
There was a Republican Senator (of course) who wanted to get a a green energy credit to a refiner who wanted to pump the CO2 from oil refining processes back into the refined fuel. That again, does nothing but make the fuel produced have more energy for unit volume and emit more CO2 when burned. It would do nothing but put the CO2 emissions from refining into the fuel that would emit the added carbin as CO2 when burned,
I hate marketing tricks that proclaim one thing while they are actually doing the opposite.
You have to pay attention to what they say with flowery words that imply something which is, at it's core, basically the opposite of what they are doing, And they know it.
The bigger issue is that we as a species are nowhere near doing enough to stop the catastrophic effects of climate change, and we're all complicit.
We must stop listening to distractions and lies and vote like our lives depend on fixing the climate...because they do. We don't know how dangerous and unhealthy this planet will be in the next 20 years if we don't fix it in the next decade. And it will be too late if by then if we don't.
Vote for the planet, only vote for candidates that plan to protect our climate and stop allowing companies and countries to destroy it. And stop focusing on China and India...we are not doing nearly enough in the US and we must start at home.
https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/reports
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/26/climate/un-climate-pledges-warming.html
https://time.com/6225122/unfccc-report-catastrophic-climate-change/
It's all about the spin....... there's no there, there. Just feel good sound bytes.
I think it's AWESOME! Absolutely nothing wrong with a business duping a fraudulent movement into thinking they're doing something.
Some of the largest environmental 'problem' organizations are unfortunately many of these 'Save the Planet' groups. The problem to me is How many trees have to be chopped down to stuff those monstrous pamphlets you MAIL to me like the World Wildlife Foundation and other large donor orgs. Big box stores are a mess too, but I get a lot of crap mailed to me, wanted or not!
Sounds to me like this is greenbullshitting, rather than greenwashing. If companies put as much enefgy into actually going green or at least greener as they do on lying to the public maybe our planet would not be in peril like it currently is.
It's kind of funny that Coca Cola has been mentioned being they have gone 'woke'. It's quite ironic.
I care about the environment very much, but The New Green Deal doesn't quite hold it's mustard. It's all about the Dems supporting special interest groups vs really implementing projects to reduce carbon footprint.
It's time for the Dems to stop being so damn greedy and do what's right for our country and our citizens.
Continue legal action against their false claims!
Honesty has not been a hallmark of politics or industry. Consider that when casting your vote.
How can so many people be indifferent to companies purposely deceiving us? Then, I remember that Trump actually won his first presidental election and that some Americans value money and power over honesty.
CAUSES ASKS: "How do you feel about companies greenwashing their products?" ME: False and misleading advertising, I'd say ... but in the corporate (and political) world that's nothing new. : (
https://www.politifact.com/article/2021/nov/08/oil-companies-talk-about-low-carbon-projects-how-m/
Our planet and all the life on it don't have time for these games of the greedy. We need transparency and unflinching realism to force real action and change!
There should be a way to punish these companies for deceptive advertising.
I am always looking for ethically sourced and ecco friendly products and it ishard to know who to trust.
Supreme Court justices should note, corporations aren't worried about not having clean air to breathe or clean water to drink or cancer caused by toxins in the environment because THEY are not natural persons. They actually have more in common with vampires as they suck the life out of the planet.
Why aren't local governments doing more to actually recycle?
Those old white men and greedy big corporations don't care about my generation millennials and gen z
Tell the truth. When Honest company went green, Jessica Alba did a presentation on what it entail. I felt the company was showing they were serious.
Little Seed Farm is a small company but is also conscious not to impact the environment.
I appreciate companies who really make an effort not a statement.
This isn't a game! Things need to change drastically & immediately, before we literally run out of time!
We're drowning the world in poisons and waste...!
Do the right thing! Go green.
This practice is just one small step from fraud. This practice should be illegal. Just because you talk the talk does mean you are walking the walk! Supplier's that engage in this practice should be identified and kept on. "national greenwashing" list.
Whatever happener to truth in advertizing?!?
Seeing is believng! So far I haven't seen a lot of difference in resullts of change in climate change.
When this is done and found to be fraudulent the companies should be shame in the public eye and fined and made to stop. The fines should be substantial enough to make them think and some of the fine money should go to city roof top gardens.