Greenwash – It’s all hogwash

By Dilaila Mohd Yunus

As more and more consumers are getting increasingly concerned with the dangers of global warming, the need for environmentally-friendly products and services have increased.  As a result, some corporations are turning to greenwashing to position themselves as green corporations in order to get a big chunk of the market share.

What is Greenwashing?

Greenwashing refers to any form of marketing or public relations of a political, religious or non-profit organisation that mislead consumers regarding the environmental practices of the company; or the environmental benefits of a product or service.

In short, greenwashing is when a corporation positions itself or its products as ‘green’ when they are not.

What is wrong with greenwashing?

Misleading

Greenwashing is morally and ethically wrong. The degree of deceit range from omission of fact to absurd claims and outright lies.

Living a lie

If one company gets away with greenwashing, it gives other companies the permission and incentive to follow suit. This in effect would create an industry-wide illusion of environmental sustainability. As a result, consumers will be tricked into using environmentally-degrading products, while Earth continues to suffer.

Stunt growth

As more products with fake environmental claims penetrate the marketplace, the stiff competition will stunt the growth of genuine green products. Unethical manufacturers will just take a shortcut to reap the benefits now rather than investing in the time and effort to produce authentic green products.

Disappoint consumers

Once a consumer starts to mistrust an organisation, he or she won’t be coming back. You’ll lose substantial business in the long run from consumers who are genuinely looking for environmentally-friendly products.

Death of a potentially lucrative market share

Recurring bad experience will lead to cynicism and doubt on all environmental claims. This will be the death of the green product market. Manufacturers will suffer.

How not to greenwash

Don’t just highlight one attribute of the product

Some companies highlight a particular attribute that is environment-friendly while omitting to mention others which are clearly not.

The supposedly green doll is a case in point. They are made of plastic and wrapped in more plastic, even if the accessories are made from re-purposed excess fabrics and trimmings from other dolls.

Don’t claim without proof

Anyone can claim their products are environmentally-friendly. It’s the substantiated proof that matters.

Don’t make vague claims

Take the so-called pure and natural line of diapers. The only difference between regular diapers and this version is just a small piece of organic cotton.

Don’t make irrelevant claims

For example, what’s the point of saying your product is CFC-free when CFC has already been banned anyway?

Don’t make claims that are outright lies

An oil and gas company, for instance, falsely advertised that the air we breathe is getting better, not worse.

Clear the hogwash from Greenwashing

At the end of the day, the main way to eliminate the practice of greenwashing is to really believe in the preservation of the earth. When a manufacturer or organisation adopts this approach, genuine efforts will be made to produce green products right from inception stage.

Then and only then can we see transparency, honesty and patience in the production of genuine environmentally-friendly products.

The writer is an international award-winning KL-based creative consultant with more than a decade’s experience in some of Malaysia’s most prominent advertising agencies and now runs In Other Words.