Beware Of Greenwashing

When we talk about fashion, beauty, or our ways of living, sustainability and environmentally conscious lifestyles are hot topics. While you may be vegan, buying cruelty-free items, and seeking environmentally responsible shopping options, your attempt to buy from companies that, in your opinion, are making the world a better place by making environmentally friendly decisions may not have the desired outcome.

To put it another way, you can be a victim of Greenwashing. Greenwashing has become a buzzword in recent years, but what does it really mean? We’ll explain everything in this article, including how to spot and avoid frequent greenwashing red flags.

Understanding the Term:

Greenwashing is when a firm or business deceives its customers or audiences into believing that the products and services, or the company is eco-friendly or sustainable but is not. Greenwashing companies may claim that their products are manufactured from recycled materials or that they save energy. While certain environmental claims may be true, greenwashing companies frequently exaggerate their claims or benefits in order to fool customers.

Although not everyone is aware of what greenwashing is, it is not a new issue; it has existed since the 1980s, when the word was originally coined. Greenwashing is a marketing strategy taking advantage of the increase in demand for sustainable products. Genuine green products can back up their claims with facts and numbers.

The Fine Line between Greenwashing and Green-marketing:

The distinction between green marketing and greenwashing is blurry. Green marketing, as opposed to greenwashing, is when a business sells a product or service based on true environmental benefits. Green marketing can swiftly turn into greenwashing if a company does not follow the principles of sustainable business operations.

Green marketing makes it mandatory for firms to be extra conscious about the environment and be accountable. They design their operations to have the minimum wrong impact on the environment as feasible. Green marketing refers to products and services that meet the following criteria:

There are no harmful elements or substances that deplete the ozone layer.

It is easy to recycle or is manufactured from recycled materials.

Produced using renewable resources.

Produced in an environmentally friendly manner.

Doesn’t utilise a lot of packing and packaging can be recycled or home composted.

Instead of being disposable, it is designed to be reused and repairable.

How to catch up with the cunning?

The desire of consumers to lead a sustainable life, according to a theory, is the tipping point in our transition to an eco-friendly future. Many businesses share their environmental stories with the world. The use of “pure greenwash,” or purposeful deception about a product’s environmental impact, is uncommon. With that in mind, here are several marketing and branding techniques to avoid in order to avoid brands that are greenwashed:

Pictures of anything green – The photos of a product can disclose a lot about it. When you use images that give the illusion of being green, even if the product isn’t “green” in the first place, you’re following in the footsteps of green marketing.

Claims without concision: Brands may focus on a single little green feature or trait for their goods or services, while the remainder of their business is anti-green. Thus, there should be facts to corroborate and back up the presented sustainability claims. Only then can the consumers be satiated regarding the corporation’s empathy with the environment.

Ambiguous buzzwords– The terminologies such as “sustainable” and “environmentally friendly” can have plenty of different meanings. Use concrete language to demonstrate how the items or services are environmentally friendly. They’ll say these things without explaining how they got into that situation. 

Green products or grey companies? – This is the most clear case of greenwashing. When a company produces ecologically beneficial products like energy-saving light bulbs or long-lasting apparel, yet its factories pollute the air and rivers.

Biased Statistics: It is a direct deception of customers to report fraudulent claims or data to represent sustainable company operations.

The Widespread Impact on Greenwashing Victims:

Greenwashing has the effect of confusing customers and diverting focus away from real eco-initiatives. On the surface, greenwashing appears to be innocuous, but the truth is far worse. All firms do not engage in greenwashing on purpose. The presumed ‘marketing misconception’ does turn out to be a simple miscommunication between a company’s products and its customers – or the company being completely unaware of the facts themselves. Meanwhile, this is an important factor to be ruled in whilst trying to shop green, one should not forget that a multitude of such greenwashing cases perpetuate the widespread of facts-pretending-to-be-facts instead of real statistical data and information. This not only enables harm towards our environment but discourages the buyers who actually want to bring a change, however small, with their shopping choices. 

It’s exploitation, since firms value the financial benefits of being environmentally conscientious above really making the adjustments needed to be environmentally responsible. They are completely unaware of the environmental impact of their marketing decisions. Eco-credibility is being sought in more subtle ways by brands. Even though there’s no evidence that this is authentic, many brands employ photographs of glaciers or any other greenery to create a sense of natural and healthy. 

Recently Kathmandu has been advertising a new jacket that is made using BioDown, what’s that you may ask! Well as it turns out the jacket is actually made from nylon (which is a plastic) and the inner is a blend of duckdown and feathers.

Kathmandu has stated that these jackets are ‘biodegradable’ which means that the jacket will break down under specific environmental circumstances over several years. Unfortunately biodegradable products are unlikely to break down in landfill as you need a specific plant for this. So if you put it in your curb side bin it will end up in landfill for who knows how long.

This jacket comes with a whopping price tag of $599.98 which is quite a lot more than other jackets that they sell in a similar style. 

Greenwashing thrives on capitalist marketing strategies by misleading the masses. If you are concerned question the company before blindly relying on what’s presented in front of you. It’s important to strive against all odds while trying to do something better for the home we call this planet; hence, it should be noted by the greenwashing companies that its customer base with pure intentions can just as well question their ‘green’ product with necessary polemics if push comes to shove.