What does Greenwashing mean?
It is a term you may have come across. In any case, whether you have realised it or not, you have certainly had to deal with it at some point. But what is greenwashing and what does it mean for me as a consumer? That is an interesting question and one that is becoming increasingly topical. Greenwashing literally means greenwashing. It is something that many companies have been trying for a long time, but which is increasingly being resisted.
In short, greenwashing means that companies state very nice green goals and missions with their products or on their websites. That sounds good, but the part where it goes wrong is the implementation of these goals. Because of the growing focus on sustainability, many companies felt they had to do something with it. Suddenly, many different green logos and labels were created, with accompanying advertising campaigns and slick films. Where it all went wrong was in the execution of all the green and sustainable plans. Such a process of deliberately using a greener label than one is entitled to is called greenwashing.
Perhaps it would be better to look for some examples of greenwashing. That way it will become clear what this is and what it means for you, as a consumer and buyer of certain products and services. For example, there was an energy supplier that claimed to have opened a green coal-fired power plant. They offered their customers green electricity from this green coal plant. Action was taken on this and the communication had to be changed.
Another good example is a company in Canada. They had stated in their annual reports and corporate objectives that they wanted to work in a circular way. In order to achieve this, they had to focus heavily on the recycling of materials and products. This sounds very good, of course, and was communicated to the outside world as a nice image. In reality, it turned out that the company had stipulated in the plans that more than 85% of their waste could simply go to the dump. This was a typical example of greenwashing, where only a sustainable image was presented to the outside world.
But why is this phenomenon so damaging? Surely all companies make something look better than it really is? That is true, but the problem with greenwashing is that it is done on purpose. If a company pursues certain goals, in a sincere manner, and fails to achieve these goals, customers are often inclined to forgive the company. But if a sustainable label is deliberately abused, this leads to the loss of value of this kind of expression. As a result, companies with sincere intentions may also be less inclined to work as sustainably as possible. After all, they are viewed in the same way as the companies that abuse this image.
For you as a consumer, it can also have unpleasant consequences. It is for example true that biological or sustainable products and services are often more expensive than the regular variant. If you are willing to pay more for this product, you want to be sure that this extra money will also go towards improving the impact that the company has on the environment. In short, the consumer has the right to make this choice based on real facts and not on a created image that turns out not to be true at all.
In recent years, this phenomenon has attracted a great deal of attention. Whereas the first 10 years or so of greenwashing were reasonably unpunished, now more and more companies are being called to account for these practices. Thus, companies are forced to work in a more sustainable way, or simply to stop pretending. There are now even “prizes” awarded to the company with the most misleading campaign. In this way, attention is drawn to this phenomenon and companies are indirectly forced to do something about it.
If you are curious whether a company that you are going to do business with, or perhaps already are a customer, is guilty of greenwashing, you can usually find this out easily. A quick search with the name of the company and the term Greenwashing is often enough to see if they have been caught out. Of course, this does not make all companies bad, but it can help you make an informed choice. Especially in industries like aviation and energy suppliers, the difference can be huge. Have you discovered a case of greenwashing yourself? There are several contact points where you can report this complaint. You can also include it in a review of a company you are a customer of. This also applies in a positive sense, of course. If companies that perform well in this area notice that their customers appreciate this, they will do their best to keep it up.
