I was watching TV this week and saw a Whole Foods commercial that really intrigued me. This ad had been running for a while but for some reason, it caught my attention this time. At first glance, you’ll see that the commercial has an upbeat tone with a lot of bright visuals. But you’ll also find that there’s a lot of greenery and “outdoorsy-ness” in the ad along with some environment-related buzzwords (eco-revolutionary, green missionary, sustainable, etc.). At first, I didn’t think much of it, so I just moved on. But a couple of days later, I needed to go for groceries and went straight to Whole Foods. Was it because of the commercial??? (Hint: there’s a good chance it was) It was at that moment I knew… I had been greenwashed!
What is Greenwashing?
Unless you live abandoned in a cave with almost no connection to the rest of the world, in which case you wouldn’t be able to read this article, then you have definitely encountered greenwashing. In fact, you may have even been greenwashed before.
Put simply, greenwashing is a technique used by businesses and organizations to portray themselves as environmentally conscious and/or friendly.
A lot of times, greenwashing becomes a marketing team’s go-to tool to use when trying to boost public perception of their company. I mean, who doesn’t want to seem like they care about the environment? In this day and age, with so many environmental issues on the rise and especially with climate change becoming one of the biggest threats to face humankind, greenwashing is the perfect way to become the good guy.
Take Amazon, for example. I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen just as many (or even more) commercials about Amazon’s commitment to renewable energy and net-zero emissions target by 2040 as commercials about their actual products. And for a company of Amazon’s stature, that’s a BIG deal. Amazon even went as far as to set up an organization-type thing called The Climate Pledge which tries to get other companies to join Amazon in pledging net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040, 10 years before the recommendation of the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. I mean just look at how much effort Amazon has put into seemingly turning into a climate-friendly company.
But we should be encouraging this, right? Why wouldn’t we want companies to combat climate change? Isn’t this the best way to escape the crisis? Unfortunately, like everything else, it’s not that simple. While there are positives in seeing these companies take initiative on climate change, there are nuances that make it more complex and, frankly, disappointing.
Pros and Cons
One of the best things about this entire “greenwashing” development is that companies are actually trying to become “green”. They are doing this in a variety of ways, including switching to complete renewable energy, adapting their resources to become less harmful to the climate, and even investing in new technologies/companies that will help fight climate change in the future. Luckily, you can’t become environmentally friendly without taking at least a few steps to become environmentally friendly.
But nothing comes without its downsides.
By now, you may have noticed that the term “greenwashing” has similarities to “brainwashing”, and that’s no coincidence. Greenwashing is really just a way to convince you that a company is green. You are supposed to have a positive perception of the company, and nothing else. The problem with this is that companies exaggerate their environmentally conscious initiatives – or even lie about them on the whole.
Due to the lack of accountability, companies can say close to anything in order to build their image. Even the idea of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions has become a scam. A company may tell you that they will achieve net-zero emissions by some nice-looking year but there’s almost no way to verify that they actually reach there. Even if their production is completely emissions-free, what about the other parts of the business? Did they include emissions from the materials? Transportation? Electricity? You could even say the same about the word “sustainability”. What does it even mean? It’s not a standard that you can reach. It’s not the same across different regions and industries. It’s just a tool that was built to make us believe that companies were playing their part in solving climate change. And, sorry to say, it worked.
Conclusion
Look, I don’t mean to be negative. I just think that we need to make sure to keep our eyes open because we’ll simply be taken advantage of if we don’t. Greenwashing is a pretty complicated subject, but I hope you learned more about some of its nuances and how it can affect our daily lives. This is something that we see every day and we should be aware of when we see it. So next time you think that you find an example of greenwashing (while watching TV, shopping at a store, etc.), think about everything you just learned and try to see past what’s in front of you. Know that what you are seeing is well-calculated and just take look at it from a higher point of view (just don’t get hurt lol).