Abstract

Today marketers are trying to promote their brands as environment friendly as everyone around the globe is concerned with environmental issue. Thee environmental issues are so important as they influence all human activities. Business houses are also not an exception and have thus pulled the concepts of “Green marketing”, “Green Supply Chain”, “Green Brand” and “Green consumer” into its arena. All most all the major companies are focusing on this “Green” concept now days, with business process re-engineering, actively participating in promoting their eco-friendliness and positioning themselves as green brand, that this has lead to a deceptive practice known as “Greenwashing’. This article sheds light on “Greenwashing”, its causes, effect and remedies to tackle this flaming issue

Keywords: Greenwashing, Green marketing, Green brand.

What is Greenwashing?

“Greenwashing, is this something related to whitewashing?” asked one of my students, in my supply chain class, when I was trying to know if they have some prior idea on Greenwashing. Rightly everyone has heard the expression “whitewashing” in respect to domestic chore. With respect to political environment— “whitewashing’ is defined as “a coordinated attempt to hide unpleasant facts”. “Greenwashing” is the same idea, but in an ethical marketing context more related to eco-friendly promotion. Any process is known as “Greenwashing” when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be “green” through promotional activities, PR and marketing, than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. This means Greenwashing is that unethical practice in Marketing where the marketers deceive the customer by stating its product, process or service as eco-friendly.

As a customer now let us see how we can recognize whether the particular promotional campaign is correct or meager Greenwashing tactics.

Recognizing Greenwashing

From last few years there are plenty of good companies telling their environmental stories to the world and even some who aren’t but should be. Some do it well; others don’t know where to begin or how to go about it. So what is considered or required for good green marketing?

Let’s discuss few tips on what to look for by a customer that he/she doesn’t get greenwashed:

1. Know about the company first: If you see a green ad, take a look at the company as a whole. You are hopefully not being Greenwashed if you find more information about their sustainable business practices on their Web site. Look for a complete environmental story. If there is no authentic information to validate the green claims which was promoted in the campaign then possibly you are being greenwashed intentionally or by error.
2. Research more from 3rd party sources: Getting information now is easier than it was few decades back.  The best way to search on net is to Google the company name plus the word “environment”, then see what pops up. This is although not scientific, but if consumers or environmental advocates have a grumble with the company’s track record, something’s sure to pop up and will let you know the true and correct picture.
3. Experience the product: “The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely”, by William Osler. So to know the whole truth see the product by yourself, feel its authenticity and decide whether to go for it or not, instead simply believing on ads and ending up adding the not-so green product into your shopping cart.

Why is Greenwashing a Problem?

It seems like anything and everything has “gone green” these days. IT companies, Automobile companies, Airlines, retailers, restaurants even banks and stadiums. Fortunately, more often than not, that’s a good thing. It‘s only bad if it’s Greenwashing — that’s bad for the environment, consumers and, ultimately, for the very businesses doing the Greenwashing — whether they mean to or not. Let’s discuss the problem associated with Greenwashing;

• Environment: At its very worst, Greenwashing is bad for the environment because it can encourage consumers to do the opposite of what’s good for the environment. Although initially all the companies makes claims that are neither good nor bad for the environment — it’s just making green claims to increase their sales and earn more profit. But the consequence of this ultimately does a lot more bad to environment than not doing or following any greening operations. At least you would not be blamed for creating problems for the next coming generation. Green claims  not followed rightly can do more harm.
• Consumers: Lemon laws and bait-and-switch (Retail) is very popular in the United States. Nobody likes to be taken advantage of, especially when it comes to money; after all it’s your hard earned money. So, the next time you see an environmental claim, find the authenticity of the claim and the product before you buy. The last thing, I am sure, you want to do is spend money on a product or service you believe is doing right for the environment, but in reality is not or not as much as the ad might lead you to believe
  .
• Companies: Smart businesses are finding out that doing right for the environment actually does increase profitability in many cases. With so many easy ways for businesses to reduce their environmental impact or improve their products and processes, it’s just sad when they don’t. It’s even worse when they don’t make changes and claim to be a green company just to push their agenda. When properly educated, consumers see right through this “green display” and then Greenwashing backfires, hurting the company’s reputation and, ultimately, their sales.

Council of Canadians accuses Coca-Cola of ‘Greenwashing’

Coca-Cola is the latest company to be charged with “Greenwashing,” for having an advertising campaign that focuses on the environment. “Coke has been winning plaudits from some environmentalists for moves to reduce its carbon footprint, particularly at the Olympics, and the company recently introduced a plastic bottle with 30 per cent plant-based material. But Mr. Ages charged that Coca-Cola remains a major player in the global bottled-water industry, harming Third World watersheds and resulting in huge numbers of bottles going to landfills

Greenwashing has now become a nightmare for both customers and companies. Companies unknowingly do not want to practice Greenwashing and customers are confused with the authenticity and reliability of green claim. According to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), the number of complaints it receives relating to environmental claims became four times

In 2009 ASA has already censored a number of companies, including Shell, Ryanair and Toyota, for misleading consumers about environmental matters. “Aviation accounts for 2% of CO2 emission” promoted by Ryanair was found to be false and unreliable. Shell on other hand promoted its eco-friendliness by showing a refinery emitting flowers, and according to ASA it was a vague and unclear representation of Shell’s environment concern. Meanwhile, complaints against an ad for the Toyota Prius that claimed the car “emits up to one tonne less CO2 per year” were upheld because the data was based on US driving distances, which are far greater than British ones.

To conclude both as a responsible consumer and producer one should analyze the consequences of claiming to be more environmental friendly than they are in reality. Firm should keep in mind and keep a proper check on its promotional activity, so as not to come in the list of Greenwashing companies. On the other hand consumer should properly analyze and check their purchase decision, if they really want themselves to be known as Green Consumers.