Chapter 4
CHARGE!
There can be no doubt that brands are hurling themselves at sustainability as if it is the answer to everything. Not a day goes by, it feels, without more announcements that brands are championing environmental and social issues on our behalf: the trade press is full of the increasingly shrill chatter of their efforts. The US environmental marketing agency, Terrachoice, claims that in the US alone, ‘green’ products in store doubled between 2007 and 200842 and green advertising almost tripled between 2006 and 2008. Sustainability is big business for brands, it seems.
However, talking is one thing, and talking coherently and accurately is quite another. As part of their ‘Seven Sins of Greenwashing’ report,43 Terrachoice go on to detail that in the US between November 2008 and January 2009, more than 2200 products found in mainstream US retail stores were making almost 5000 green claims between them. But on closer inspection, more than 98% of the products were guilty of some form of greenwashing. To be clear, greenwashing is the term given to any marketing or brand claim around environmental or social issues that is either false, misleading or exaggerated. That’s a staggering amount.
Despite the risks of greenwashing, these issues and themes are becoming ever-more central in brand communications. Here in the UK, major brands such as Tesco, Marks and Spencer, E.ON, EDF, Coca-Cola and McDonalds are all keen to be seen for their efforts in these areas. In a 2008 study ...
