Rising consumer demand for eco-friendly products, green practices, and socially responsible brands signals a fantastic shift toward conscious consumerism. The downside has been a marked increase in greenwashing. In this article we cover what greenwashing is and how to avoid it.
If you’re not sure what the term means, you’re in good company. 78% of Americans aren’t sure either. The good news, you don’t need a masters in sustainability to understand it (or spot it).
So what can we do about it? We’ll answer that, and more, below. Or watch our video if you just want the highlights:
Contents: Greenwashing
- What Is Greenwashing? Jump to section
- A Brief History Of Greenwashing Jump to section
- Why Is Greenwashing A Problem? Jump to section
- What Are Three Types Of Greenwashing? Jump to section
- How To Identify Greenwashing (With Examples) Jump to section
- Commonly Greenwashed Products Jump to section
- How To Avoid Greenwashing? Jump to section
What Is Greenwashing?
Greenwashing Definition
The word greenwashing is a play on “whitewashing,” a term used to indicate the intentional use of false information or marketing tactics to hide errors, crimes, or scandals.
Greenwashing is defined as the process of using misleading or false information about a company’s operations and/or products to deceive customers and members of the public about their environmental impact.
In simple words? We define it as: dishonest or deceitful marketing about a company or product’s environmental impact.
Greenwashing In Marketing vs. Green Marketing
Green marketing, on the other hand, is when an environmental marketing claim is actually substantiated.
With green marketing—also referred to as environmental or ecological marketing or green advertising—a responsible company honestly and transparently shares details that back its green claims.
Green marketing is a good thing. Green marketing helps us find green products with REAL environmental benefits, so that we can support brands that truly prioritize environmental responsibility.
What Is Greenhushing?
Like that humble friend who won’t tell you they’ve done something amazing for fear of being judged in some way, “greenhushing” refers to the phenomenon of companies or organizations underplaying or deliberately not sharing information about their sustainability related achievements.
For those of us who’ve been around fighting greenwashing for a long time, greenhushing is quite the strange concept. It appears to stem mainly from the fear of being criticized for not doing enough or being unfairly accused of greenwashing.
While understandable in many ways, there are concerns that greenhushing will limit progress and transparency at a time when both are desperately needed.
A Brief History Of Greenwashing
The market is booming with greenwashed products, but it’s not exactly a new thing.
Greenwashing has been around since the 1960s, driven by the nuclear power industry’s need to stay competitive during the anti-nuclear movement.
The term itself was coined later in 1986, by Jay Westerveld. Around the same time, Chevron was running its environmentally conscious “People Do” ad campaign. While it aired, Chevron was violating the Clean Air Act and being sued by the EPA and Sierra Club over illegally dumping pollutants into Santa Monica Bay.
Misleading environmental claims have become a regular corporate practice in the decades since and the list of companies greenwashing (some caught in the act and some not) has grown long indeed.
Why Do Companies Greenwash?
Statistically, green sells.
In 2022, 95% of surveyed consumers ranked “sustainability” as an important consideration. 84% had purchased a sustainable product in the past six months—up from 67% the previous year.
Even with the impacts of inflation, green purchasing intentions are up. Consumers are willing to pay more for green products, too.
By superficially appealing to green demands, greenwashing brands retain environmentally conscious consumers (and their $$) without actually meaningfully minimizing their environmentally damaging practices.
Why Is Greenwashing A Problem?
Greenwashed environmental marketing claims are a problem because they capitalize on a growing demand for sustainable practices and products.
Corporate greenwashing is the practice of misleading consumers who are attempting to “vote with their dollar” to combat climate change and damaging environmental practices.
If you’ve reached for a carton of “farm fresh” eggs, tried shampoo offering a “truly organic experience,” or opted for one sponge over another based on the recycled-looking brown and green packaging, you’ve likely been duped by greenwashing.
Green is “in” and environmentally friendly is trendy.
Unfortunately, when consumers think they’re making a pro-environmental consumer choice, they could inadvertently be contributing to harmful practices instead.
Environmental Problems Associated With Greenwashing
False claims may lead consumers to unintentionally contribute to higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions.
They may be funding business operations associated with heavy chemical use, discharge of polluted wastewater, high levels of waste, or biodiversity loss.
A Malaysian palm oil company, for example, advertised itself as providing a “home to hundreds of species of flora and fauna”.
Unfortunately, with a boost in sales, they were directly contributing to species extinction, pollution, and habitat loss (and had to remove the ad as a result).
Social Problems Associated With Greenwashing
While they may make some short-term gains, companies’ greenwashing efforts can also backfire and damage their business.
Consumer trust is declining across the globe, with only 38% of Americans believing corporate environmental claims “most” or “all of the time” (a percentage that has decreased in recent years).
Dishonesty isn’t a good look, and it can take a toll on a business’s bottom line—which has carryover impacts on their employees and the economy as a whole.
CSR Greenwashing
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the actions a company takes to be socially and environmentally accountable to itself, its stakeholders, and the public. Prioritizing CSR means that a company’s practices are oriented towards environmental benefits.
The world needs this.
But the reverse is also true. When corporate environmental performance is greenwashed, it can counteract much-needed sustainability improvements.
Not only that, but supporting a company engaged in greenwashing takes a slice of the pie from sustainable brands actually trying to do the right thing through their environmentally friendly CSR efforts.
What Are Three Types Of Greenwashing?
While greenwashing marketing can take on many forms, there are three common types to look for:
- Misleading labels and language: Unsubstantiated claims like “eco-friendly,” “green,” or “non-toxic” that aren’t regulated and could mean whatever the company wants them to mean.
- Environmental imagery: Green and blue color schemes and natural imagery (plants, farms, animals) that don’t communicate environmental facts about the product or brand, but lead viewers to associate it with sustainability.
- Hidden tradeoffs: Green advertisements of sustainable practices (i.e. recycled packaging, organic materials, zero waste practices) that don’t come close to compensating for the environmental impact (pollution, unethical sourcing, chemical use, etc.) of the product or company.
Consider the phrase “clean-burning natural gas”. Technically, it does burn cleaner, but the fracking extraction process bears just as much environmental impact.
This is the essence of greenwashing: taking more or less true environmental statements and twisting them (or ignoring certain aspects) to make the product or company seem environmentally friendly.
How To Identify Greenwashing (With Examples)
Greenwashing usually takes the form of one of the Seven Sins of Greenwashing, as developed by former environmental marketing company TerraChoice. These make for a useful framework to help us identify when greenwashing is in play:
1. Hidden trade-off: Defining something as “green” by a narrow definition that ignores other environmental impacts.
Example: Starbucks’ straw-free lids were made of more plastic than the previous straws and lids combined.
2. No proof: Green claims not easily confirmed or verified by reliable third-party certification.
Example: “Uses 30% less plastic” or “made with naturally-grown ingredients”.
3. Vagueness: Broad, insubstantial, or convoluted claims and statements like “new and improved,” “incorporates recycled materials,” “eco-friendly,” and “non-toxic”—with no further specificity.
Example: Packaging claimed to be “biodegradable” with no specifications to back up how long it will take to biodegrade.
4. Irrelevance: Claim may be truthful but unhelpful for consumers
Example: Refrigerators labeled as “CFC-free,” when CFCs are banned under the Montreal Protocol.
5. Lesser of two evils: Touting one good sustainability aspect while ignoring greater environmental harm.
Example: “Fuel-efficient” SUVs, organic cigarettes
6. Fibbing: Just plain lying!
Example: H&M’s Conscious line claiming the use of 100% organic cotton—when only 20% of it was organic
7. Worshiping false labels: Misleading words and images that imply false third-party support
Example: A product being labeled as “Vegan Approved” instead of an official certification like PETA-certified vegan or certified by Vegan.org
Commonly Greenwashed Products
Let’s take a look at some common examples of greenwashing when placed in the context of our daily lives and consumption patterns.
Packaging
Many greenwashing examples include plastic packaging labeled as “recyclable”—even when not all types of plastic can be recycled.
The “chasing arrows” symbol (one of the first large-scale cases of greenwashing) is in the process of being regulated in California due to misleading environmental marketing claims.
It’s not just recyclables. Zero waste laundry detergent may have “biodegradable” printed all over its packaging, even when it contains PVA that has low degradation rates in wastewater treatment plants (which is where it undoubtedly ends up).
Trash bags
While trash bags are recyclable, using recycled garbage bags will always be better from a carbon footprint perspective. And compostable and biodegradable trash bags are typically better still than their virgin plastic counterparts, but they’re not even close to as environmentally friendly as brands make them out to be.
And unless properly disposed of, they can actually be worse. For instance, if one were to throw away a compostable bag full of food scraps rather than actually composting it, it would go to the landfill and create the most potent GHG (methane).
Or, a company might label their bags as “compostable” when in fact they don’t break down quickly enough in a home composting system to actually be considered as such.
Lack of regulations of the terms “compostable” and “biodegradable” means you should always be wary of them unless manufacturers specify exactly how long they’ll take to break down in what conditions—or bear a home composting certification.
Appliances
You can’t always judge a book (appliance) by its energy-efficient cover (EnergyStar certification).
EnergyStar-rated appliances might be eco-friendly in a certain environment, but as General Electric (GE) found out the hard way, claims of a reduction in carbon emissions will mislead consumers if they don’t account for a certain number of devices or provide the specifics.
Food
So much food is subject to vague claims like “made from real ingredients” or “made with less waste”. All too often, we see packaging depicting images of happy farms or animals.
Even farmers’ markets have been found to have misleading claims about produce being “homegrown and organic”—only for consumers to discover supermarket barcode tags on the produce.
Regulated so minimally, pet food in particular is heavily greenwashed. And don’t even get us started on “degradable” plastic dog waste bags…
Cars
The automobile industry is a big fan of the “lesser of two evils” greenwashing tactic, where they might promote a car as fuel-efficient—but neglect the impact a vehicle has on the environment, period.
Carbon offsets
Done well, carbon offset programs can compensate for a business’s or individual’s carbon footprint.
But across the board, the sector is a tool for greenwashing. Between conservation projects that don’t end up happening and the offsets giving a green light for continued emissions, they may do more harm than good.
British Gas, the UK’s largest energy company, bought carbon offsets to reforest a region in the Amazon that was already owned by an Indigenous tribe.
Paper straws
A welcome alternative to plastic straws, paper straws were eventually found to be nearly as problematic.
Not only are they non-recyclable, but they require more energy to produce.
In addition to these common greenwashing product examples, just know that if a product or company seems too good to be true, it probably is.
How To Avoid Greenwashing?
Once you know how to spot greenwashing, it’s easier to avoid it.
Greenwashing has become savvy and sneaky: falsified emissions testing and suspect carbon offset providers, fake “certified” labels, and marketing slogans that sound legit.
So how do we avoid it?
Fortunately, restrictions and prosecuting powers are getting better. In the U.S., regulatory agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have moved for stricter, more definitive guidelines, which you can read in their “Green Guides”.
In the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) created the Greens Claim Code, to help businesses avoid making false or unsubstantiated claims. They also have some handy tips for shoppers.
Here’s 3 things you can do to avoid greenwashing when buying consumer products:
1. Apply a healthy dose of skepticism
It boils down to being more mindful, even a little skeptical. If something seems suspicious, it likely is.
Don’t be swayed by slick marketing and attractive product labels and don’t be afraid to ask questions.
2. Check for sustainability ratings
Check our Brand Rating Directory to see if we’ve covered the brand or search for other ratings providers. Most will have taken a look at greenwashing claims.
3. Look for Third-Party Certifications
Third-party sustainability certifications can help prove sustainability claims. Some of these include:
- USDA Organic
- Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS)
- OEKO-TEX® 100
- Carbon Trust Standard (for verified CO2 emissions)
Among many others, these are a great way to know someone else has done the checking so you don’t have to.
However, certification schemes themselves (even highly-trusted ones like B-Corp and GOTS) have been known to have a hand in greenwashing, so don’t trust these as single sources of truth either.
Certifications best protect consumers when they work in conjunction with transparency and your own fact-checking.
We hope this guide to greenwashing and how to avoid its perils helps you support the brands and companies who are genuinely doing better for people and planet.
Good job bro,thanks for article.
Adam- WHY do you state that I was inspired by Chevron when I coined the term “Greenwashing”?
That is patently false, and I have never seen this claim made anywhere else.
I was “inspired” only by a Fijian resort’s “save the earth, reuse your bath towel” campaign for this particular coinage.
Hi Jay, thank you for pointing this out. Must have been a misinterpretation from this article in the guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/aug/20/greenwashing-environmentalism-lies-companies
I have updated the article now, please let me know if you still feel this is being misrepresented.
Incredibly interesting and helpful article as always. I tend to be as mindful as possible when it comes to greenwashing, but it’s not always easy. I have watched some of those Dirty Money documentaries and was aware of that ridiculous VW fiasco, but I hadn’t heard of the Nestle campaign; always look out for those flaming asterisks! It’s really quite preposterous the lengths some of these companies will go to just to swell their bottom lines. And it’s not specific to environmental issues either, personal health is also a big one!
It tends to be a little worse in the States than it is in Europe. I was living over there a couple years back and there was one particular brand of cereal bars that I just couldn’t get over. It may have been in Wallmart, or Safeway, or one of those humongous supermarkets! These cereal bars were in a prominent position on the shelf, situated at eye level. They were in these lovely healthy looking green boxes, and I’m pretty sure the brand name was something as blunt as ‘Tasty and Healthy’ or something like that. When you turned the box around and looked at the ingredients there were more chemicals on their than on the periodic table! I’m pretty sure they actually discovered some new (and toxic) elements just so they could add them to the list of poison that they pumped into those cereal bars; all the while labelling them as ‘Tasty and Healthy’ and wrapping them in lovely green sunshine wrappers. Absolute madness.
Anyways I’ve gotten a little off track. Thanks for another helpful article, I really enjoy your website.
Adam Millett – Freelance Writer
wordchameleon.com
Thanks Adam, spot on. It can be so frustrating when you observe such greenwashing… worse to see people buying into it. Awareness is power against this sort of behaviour!