Greenwashing Is A Serious Problem: Here's Why

Photo by Giorgio Trovato on Unsplash

Words like ‘bio’, ‘natural’, and ‘earth-friendly’ are ones we associate with the clear bottles and green packets from the supermarket. Or, from the biodegradable labels attached to the new sweater from your favourite high street store. It feels good to consciously choose the products that state these things, right?

 What if that wasn’t the case?

 As people begin changing their lifestyles to do better for the environment, it makes sense that corporations would want to appeal to this. However, the problem is that many are reluctant to make real, lasting changes to how they operate.

Greenwashing is a term coined by environmental activist Jay Westerveld in 1986, describing when a company or individual promote their products and values in a way that misleads consumers into thinking that they are environmentally sound and ethical. This is often to distract consumers from otherwise unsavoury behaviour.

A recent high-profile example of greenwashing happened in 2018 when McDonald’s introduced paper straws to replace plastic ones, much to the dismay of their loyal Coca-Cola drinkers. Soggy straws aside, their attempts to be more ‘eco-friendly’ fell short as it turned out that the paper substitutes can’t be recycled due to UK recycling infrastructure. Ultimately, changing the straws was nothing but a misguided attempt to make McDonald’s look ethical in the emerging green economy.

It is often argued that a company’s incentive doesn’t matter so long as they’re making positive change, but this is not what’s happening on the ground. Well-meaning consumers trying to make greener choices are often being tricked into acting unsustainably and often being charged more in the process.

There’s been many documented cases of greenwashing doing more harm than benefit to the environment. Italian oil giant Eni was famously exposed in a 2020 court case. Their ‘Eni Diesel+’ was marketed as “renewable” and “good for the environment” due to its use of palm oil. Yet palm oil is known to be the main cause of the destruction of many rainforests, with habitat loss and negative impacts on biodiversity. Eni was forced to pay a $5million fine for their inaccurate marketing of their product as environmentally ethical and misleading consumers.

A report written by Terra Choice - a private marketing and environmental consultancy firm - for The New York Times stated that “95% of the products marketed as eco-friendly had committed at least one of what it called the ‘seven sins’ of greenwashing”. This list varies from intentionally using weak data to creating false certifications.

How can we avoid greenwashing and find brands we can trust? It’s reasonable to suggest that most brands found in supermarkets and online - despite what they say - can’t be fully trusted. The easiest solution to avoid unintentionally harming the environment is to shop with smaller, more local businesses’ - but this may come with extra expense, which isn’t necessarily affordable for every consumer.

 A large-scale shift in company practices is needed across the globe so that green production is the norm rather than a marketing stance, and would build a lasting difference by ending the majority of the damaging processes that are contributing to climate change.