Practical Sustainability Strategies, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 24Green Marketing and Communication and How to Avoid Green and Blue Washing

GREEN COMMUNICATION AND GREENWASHING

Often green washing is not an outright attempt to be deceptive, but it stems rather from failing to consider environmental impact measures with the same robust attention as is usually given to more established and familiar measures of business performance.

Green washing—making exaggerated environmental—claims in order to curry consumer favor is one of the banes of the sustainability community. When an organization (company, non-governmental organization (NGO), Government), lauded for environmental performance, is revealed to be engaging in environmentally dangerous practices, it provides skeptics with the fodder they need. Even when the claims are found to be inflated (or impossible to substantiate), credibility is lost. For a business model based on the paradigm that transparency leads to credibility, trust and ultimately market advantage, these incidents can be devastating.

For some companies the desire to appeal to “green” consumers and to be perceived as a good corporate citizen is enough to encourage deliberately deceptive claims. However, most companies do in fact embed “green” practices within day to day operations and initiatives; therefore, on average, the main reason for green washing has nothing to do with malfeasance or bad intent. They have to do with the fact that more often we see a fragmented approach to rolling out projects or activities—where ...