Greenwashing – what is behind the phenomenon?

Greenwashing – what is behind the phenomenon?

Today, many companies advertise that they are “green”. This embodies not only corporate green responsibility but also social responsibility. Of course, it is welcomed by society in the “Friday of the Future” and the era of growing environmental awareness. On the other hand, green whitening is a deliberate deception of consumers regarding sustainable corporate standards.

Green Bleaching: How to embellish the wrong image? 

Now, many companies pay particular attention to sustainability and environmental compatibility in their marketing activities. 

Being responsible with our environment is a fashion and is well received by customers. The company wants to jump into the green trend, but only if it doesn’t cost that much and doesn’t have to accept significant changes. Green whitening, or at least the root cause of the problem, can be explained similarly. Companies use these processes and methods to demonstrate sustainability and environmental awareness to the outside world. But as the word “appears” implies, green clothing has more to do with appearance than existence. Misleading advertising information, promotional activities, and product descriptions lead consumers to believe that they have purchased green products, but they are not. Generally, the greenwash is not so easy to identify. It is better to avoid greenwashing! Do you want to improve your company and avoid green drift?

•  So it is essential to pay attention to the following points: Take this topic seriously and always keep it updated.
• Use only official seals and certifications for your products. This is how transparency is created through clear standards.
•  Avoid exaggerating the positives. The actual protection of the environment need not be overstated.
• Don’t miss out on important information, even if it’s not always positive. Transparency is the keyword here.
• Don’t use “natural advertising”; use innovative advertising.

Would you please not make your products and website look more natural and eco-friendly than they are? The company’s marketing messages must always be relevant and, more importantly, verifiable. This can effectively avoid the phenomenon of green whitening and achieve the goal of natural environmental protection. 

The following example of green whitening shows you what companies can think of to distract potential customers from environmentally harmful behaviour.

Examples of green whitening: animal welfare scandals, packaging and eyewash carmaker conspiracy.

In a promotional video released by the carmaker in mid-September 2015, trucks, cars, and mopeds cross a roundabout in Hannover. Driving in the intersection, honk the horn and accelerate. Suddenly something happened: little by little, white electric cars poured into the circle from all directions and formed beautiful formations around the roundabout, while a choir of children in white T-shirts sang Depeche Modes in the middle. Enjoy the Silence. “How idyllic! This is exactly what people envision about the future of private travel: pure, quiet, and electric. At the time, it wasn’t a perfect time for the exhaust scandal to be exposed by the media.

 In September 2015, the automaker used special exhaust software to manipulate diesel vehicles on a large scale, especially for the US market. This affects millions of vehicles previously advertised as “clean diesel”. From the perspective of deliberately manipulating the vehicle so that its surroundings are significantly better balanced than the actual situation, the EV ads (some of which are only available as prototypes) seem completely cynical, as does the image of Greta Thunberg. The automaker put it on the website for advertising purposes in the fall of 2019. Only 140 in the same year.

The glow of fast food chains and consumers

In elaborate brochures and numerous photographs, a fast-food chain shows us that they pay special attention to animal welfare and healthy eating. To provide better meat, the BEST Beef program was launched, through which farms that implement specific animal husbandry standards can obtain better slaughter prices. This large company also hopes to solve the problem of waste prevention, especially plastic waste. The image of an unhealthy fast-food giant should improve. 

A green sign instead of red, a large number of advertisements about happy cows and healthy salads, and avoiding packaging waste, all of this plus the transformation of American restaurant-style branches to modern ecological fast-food restaurants have failed for a long time. Follow the recommendations. Only four farmers in Germany participated in the BEST beef program. Unfortunately, the program only sold 9 cents more per kilogram of meat, and the expensive breeding standards could hardly be funded.

Salad dressing still contains more calories than burgers. Until 2019, waste prevention is limited to smaller napkins and new dispensers, of which only one can be removed. We would like to know if there will be more moves after the latest announcement on waste prevention. These examples are just two companies carrying out large-scale green bleaching. But more green bleaching campaigns are being exposed or know in advance that they are a show.

How to detect and combat green drifting?

It is not so easy. If it is so easy, the concept may not exist, at least not on such a large scale. The bleaching company and the company do not trade lies. They have an excellent strategy to promote something neutral or negative, so much so that they end up selling it as a positive thing. Several methods can be exposed:

• Green cleaning is based on suspicious and fictitious labels and certificates. These labels usually have attractive designs and are convincing with positive slogans and natural colours, but they do not represent established standards. This makes consumers feel particularly difficult because the first and second glance can often distinguish suspicious labels from serious ones. A sustainable company does not need its logo. You can communicate frankly without any plastic surgery.
• Another popular green whitening strategy is to highlight the individual environmental aspects of the product to place more minor sustainable details on the back at the same time. Or announce what is self-explanatory. For example, CFC substances have been banned by law since 1991, but even today, some manufacturers still advertise their products as “CFC-free”. This strategy is called “obvious advertising.”
• But some marketing strategies go unnoticed, such as green or brown tones of logos and packaging and photos of happy animals in the wild. The impact of visual impressions like this on consumers often exceeds people’s expectations to be seen as a subconscious impact. Terms such as “climate-friendly”, “environmentally friendly”, “nature”, and “area” do not have specific definitions and are therefore not protected by law. Therefore, companies can easily use these positive characteristics for marketing, thus misleading consumers to do things incompatible with true sustainability. 

We will wash the green with you! The fame of the company depends mainly on its commitment to society and the environment. More and more companies are incorporating sustainability into their daily activities, which is understandable. However, once the “green” reputation and related earnings appear as actual environmental concepts, they will not be used to the environment or people. 

Since environmental protection and green whitening are common themes in politics, the media and many people, sooner or later, these green whitening strategies will be exposed. In the long run, this, in turn, will seriously damage the reputation of the company. Therefore, avoid green whitening from the beginning. Whether you sell your products as a company or with the help of our opposition to “green washing” and our company’s ten tips for sustainable development, this only affects your external image, and you will fully understand environmental stewardship. As a company, whether in the food industry, logistics or other fields, are you willing to rely on sustainable packaging or use environmentally friendly products to celebrate the next company event? 

You can get everything your company needs in our product range, from tableware and packaging to toilet paper, and everything with environmentally-friendly qualities. 

We can check the quality through certificates such as PEFC TM or FSC®. These allow absolute transparency because the entire production process of the product can be tracked and controlled from the social and ecological aspects.

Read our blog on: Sustainability in the company – in 4 steps to the green corporate strategy