CULTURE
The Currency of Greenwashing Written by Catherine Bixler Greenwashing may sound like a painting technique you do to prepare a canvas. It does share some symbolism with the act of covering something up. The term has gained popularity in recent years thanks to the rise in climate change coverage and consumer-generated branding faux pas call outs on social media, both spurred by calls for change and transparency. That being said, how does the term relate to those things? Greenwashing is, by a conglomerate of definitions, the act of companies marketing their products as helping the environment when the business strategies and impact of the products are actually not eco-friendly at all. The consumer, you, is
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entranced with green packaging or cute little leaf iconography, and you think you’re doing Mother Nature a solid. It’s a mind game to fool you into buying more stuff, which in essence is the opposite of living a more sustainable lifestyle. Several industries are guilty of this type of green marketing - a term for strategy behind an 'ecofriendly' product. One such company was the cheating emissions scandal of Volkswagen in 2015. Software in over 500,000 vehicles gave false readings to emissions tests, breaking the Clean Air Act in America. They knowingly did this.
