What is Green Washing?
 
 
Well it is not organic detergent
 
 
More and more companies are resorting to ‘green washing’ – giving their business an environmentally friendly makeover without actually taking any steps to improve their impact on the environment. But how do we recognize green washing when we see it – and is it even a problem?
 
Companies whose environmental records are patchy are more vulnerable than ever to pressure from green groups and ordinary customers, and in recent years consumer power has become an ever more important factor in the financial health of some of our best-known brands. This is a particular problem for companies who have traditionally been able to ignore the environmental lobby – oil and gas companies, chemical manufacturers, and industrial conglomerates being among the most obvious examples.
 
Consumers are becoming more aware of the environmental impact of their actions, and more ready than before to make purchasing decisions on the basis of a company’s green credentials. If your business causes more than its fair share of harm to the environment that’s a big problem.
 
This is where ‘green washing’ comes into play. Companies find spurious ways of re-branding themselves as environmentally aware and conscientious – playing up initiatives like ‘investing in alternative sources of energy’, for example, which sounds impressive until you consider that the company in question drills for oil in 25 countries worldwide. Or promoting a new model of car as helping to protect the environment by way of some clever gadget or revolutionary new engine design, conveniently ignoring the fact that it’s still 20% ’dirtier’ than its nearest rivals. Greenwash works by trying to associate the brand in the public’s mind with responsibility and a positive corporate ethos – but beneath the veneer, the company’s activities continue exactly as before.
 
So companies employ clever marketing to sell themselves – what’s new? What difference does it make to the rest of us if a few unscrupulous businesses are trying to parlay minor green initiatives into a bogus impression of corporate responsibility? Quite a lot. For one thing, it’s often dishonest –designed to make us believe something that isn’t true. Over time, though, even the most carefully constructed greenwashing campaigns may be exposed as hollow and meaningless by environmental pressure groups, media and other interested parties.
 
And that’s a problem. Because as soon as consumers start to get cynical – as soon as they come to believe that all companies are just as bad, or that they’re all pretending to be ethically aware when the reality is the opposite, then there is no benefit for honest companies who are doing their best to preserve the environment. Green washing permits companies to pull a fast one and everyone in the market suffers. And so too, obviously, does the planet around us.
 
There are literally hundreds of examples from round the world of greenwashing campaigns that have, with varying degrees of success, sought to re-brand businesses as much more environmentally friendly than any objective look at the evidence would sustain.
 
One prominent trend is for sportswear companies to promote themselves as being in the forefront of efforts to improve working conditions in garment factories in Asia and elsewhere. Despite paying wages of a couple of dollars a day to workers who are sometimes, according to green groups, forced to toil in extremely uncomfortable conditions, these firms are keen to stress their ethical concerns by investing in community programs and highlighting improvements in pay and conditions whenever they occur, whilst at the same time aggressively pursuing anyone who questions the truth of these claims.
 
Another prominent example is General Electric’s recent “EcoImagination” campaign, which sought to reposition GE as environmentally conscious and keen on protecting the planet. New products and services were designed and marketed as greener and more energy efficient than their predecessors.
 
Now I am a big fan of “Ecoimagination” but detractors complained that this campaign gave the impression of being eco-friendly when GE is not – after all, it’s still one of the largest industrial and manufacturing multinationals in the world. But GE and their defenders point out that these claims were not false. Increasingly, new generations of products are being made to more exacting standards than before; better for the environment, more energy efficient, and with a smaller ‘carbon footprint’. And this, it seems, is part of the problem with green washing – how to know where a company’s right to promote its green credentials ends, and dishonest ‘greenwash’ techniques begin.
 
Many businesses do have a genuine desire to do their bit to help preserve the planet, and by allowing less reputable firms to muscle in on their territory, they’re not only allowing their own advantage to be neutered, but also sitting back and watching a whole generation of new consumers become more cynical and more skeptical than ever before. How, then, to persuade the public that your environmentally friendly credentials are genuine, and not just ‘greenwash’ like so many others?
 
There’s no doubt about it; it’s an increasingly tough gig. However, there are ways to persuade consumers that you’re on the level. The ideal situation is an alliance with a known and respected green group. Many environmental lobby groups have their own awards schemes; charter marks and seals of approval that will help persuade customers that your environmental credentials are for real. Alternatively, why not try advertising that eschews vague claims of ‘green-ness’ in favor of simple and verifiable statements of the ways in which you are working towards environmentally sound goals? Consumers will be more likely to believe you if you can back up your claims with hard facts. Increasingly, they expect it.
 
Business has a big role to play in the growing movement to preserve the environment for future generations. It benefits no one, in the long term, for companies to be allowed to ‘green-wash’ their dubious practices in an attempt to pull the wool over the public’s eyes. Firms large and small can do their bit by employing honesty in advertising, and honing their marketing to put across credible and responsible claims rather than unsubstantiated boasts about how ethical they are. (Maybe we should start suing not just the companies but also advertising firms like we sue unsavory brokerages – something for Spitzer to think about). With green washing, as with environmental issues more generally, short-term benefit often comes with long-term costs.
 
 
 
 
 
Friday, August 3, 2007
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