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WHAT’S IN A WORD
WHAT EXACTLY IS
Greenwash
g? Compiled by Kerry-Ann Scrase
Greenwashing is when a company or organisation spends more time and money on marketing themselves as environmentally friendly than on minimising their environmental impact. It is a deceitful advertising gimmick intended to mislead consumers who prefer to buy goods and services from environmentally conscious brands. The term arose in the 1980s after American environmentalist Jay Westervelt noted how at a hotel he visited, there were signs asking guests to reuse their towels in order to “save the environment”. Westervelt considered the vast amount of wastage he had encountered throughout the rest of the hotel, where there were no obvious efforts being made towards sustainability. Instead, he concluded, the hotel was simply trying to reduce costs by not having to wash towels as much but were trying to market this as eco-friendly behaviour.
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Whilst this trend is concerning, greenwashing is not always entirely intentional or a malicious plot to deceive – more often than not, it is as a result of overenthusiasm and the need to impress a new generation of consumers. This is because being seen as ethical helps drive brand popularity and profitability. Basically being socially conscious sells. Research has shown that Gen Z (people born roughly between 1995 and 2010) are more likely to spend money on companies and brands seen to be ethical, than previous generations. In fact according to Nielsen's Global
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Corporate Sustainability Report, 66% of consumers would spend more on a product if it comes from a sustainable brand, and that figure jumps to 73% among millennials. Greenwashing is all about misdirection, showing one thing to distract you from what is really going on. More significantly, however, is that greenwashing takes up valuable space in the fight against real environmental issues like climate change, plastic ocean pollutions, air pollution and global species extinctions. The unfortunate part is that many companies do it by accident, as they don't have the expertise to know what is truly environmentally beneficial, and what is not. Is there a difference between green marketing and greenwashing? There is a fine line between green marketing and greenwashing. Unlike greenwashing, green marketing is when companies sell products or services based on legitimate environmental positives. Green marketing is generally practical, honest and transparent, and it means that a product or service meets these criteria: · Manufactured in a sustainable fashion. · Free of toxic materials or ozonedepleting substances.
