MISLEADING SUSTAINABILITY STRATEGIES: THE SEVEN SHADES OF GREEN

Kaan Vatansever 25 July 2024

 

What is Greenwashing?

Green is a color that represents nature and symbolizes freshness, renewal, and life. Known to have positive effects on human psychology, the color green can increase feelings of trust while reducing stress. Therefore, green is often used in environmental and sustainability efforts. For example, the concept of "green transformation" refers to changes made to ensure environmental sustainability. However, it should be noted that such efforts can sometimes be superficial, misleading, and aimed solely at creating an image. The term "greenwashing" is frequently used to describe this situation.

Greenwashing refers to the practice of presenting a company or product as environmentally friendly despite its negative impact on the environment. This term first emerged in the 1980s and is now a strategy companies use to manipulate the increasing demands for sustainability. Companies use misleading environmentally friendly statements in their product packaging or advertisements, exploiting consumers' environmental sensitivities. For example, a product's packaging might include terms like "natural," "organic," or "eco-friendly," but these terms are often used without any scientific or legal basis. This tactic aims to increase profits by exploiting consumers' environmental concerns.

Misleading Sustainability Strategies

Greenwashing can be considered the main category of misleading sustainability strategies employed by companies. In addition to greenwashing, there are six other misleading sustainability strategies: greenhushing, greenlighting, greenshifting, greenlabelling, greenrinsing, and greencrowding.

  1. Greenhushing: Greenhushing refers to companies choosing to remain silent about their climate strategies. This term was defined by academics in 2008. According to research by the climate consultancy company South Pole, some large companies avoid disclosing their progress on science-based climate targets. This is either to avoid greenwashing accusations or to maintain a competitive advantage. For example, some large firms set net-zero carbon targets but avoid sharing information about their processes to achieve these targets, which is considered greenhushing.

  2. Greenlighting: Greenlighting involves companies exaggerating some of their environmentally friendly features while hiding their other activities that harm the environment. For example, an automobile manufacturer may advertise its electric vehicles while ignoring the carbon emissions caused by its gasoline vehicles. This strategy aims to gain consumers' trust by creating an environmentally friendly image, even though the company does not fully fulfill its environmental responsibilities.

  3. Greenshifting: Greenshifting means reducing the climate crisis to individual consumer behaviors and placing the responsibility on individuals. Instead of minimizing their environmental impact, companies encourage consumers to adopt more eco-friendly habits. For example, a plastic manufacturer may organize recycling campaigns to encourage individuals to recycle while ignoring its own environmental impact, which is considered greenshifting.

  4. Greenlabelling: Greenlabelling involves using misleading environmentally friendly statements on product labels. This strategy includes using labels and logos that exaggerate the environmental benefits of products to exploit consumers' environmental sensitivities. For example, a product's packaging may include terms like "eco," "nature-friendly," or "biodegradable," but these terms do not reflect the product's actual environmental impact, which is categorized as greenlabelling.

  5. Greenrinsing: Greenrinsing refers to companies continually changing their sustainability goals without achieving these targets. This strategy aims to distract public attention without fulfilling sustainability commitments. For example, a company may commit to achieving carbon neutrality by 2025 but set a new sustainability goal for 2030 without achieving the previous target, which is considered greenrinsing.

  6. Greencrowding: Greencrowding involves companies blending in with slow-moving groups in sustainability to divert attention from themselves. This strategy aims to hide their slow progress in sustainability. For example, large plastic manufacturers may join eco-friendly projects while ignoring their harmful activities, which is considered greencrowding.

Examples of Misleading Sustainability Strategies Worldwide

As environmental awareness increases, companies are expected to be environmentally conscious. However, some companies try to mislead consumers by using misleading sustainability strategies instead of meeting these expectations. This section provides examples of the above-mentioned misleading sustainability strategies from around the world:

 

1. Greenhushing: Some large asset management companies reported their sustainability performance and targets minimally or not at all. This strategy was considered greenhushing because it aimed to underreport their environmental performance.

 

2. Greenlighting: A well-known oil company ran advertising campaigns highlighting its investments in renewable energy. However, the company continued its plans to increase oil and gas production in the background. This strategy was considered greenlighting because it hid the company's expansion in fossil fuel production while highlighting its investments in renewable energy.

 

3. Greenshifting: A well-known oil company's social media campaign in 2020 can be given as an example. Shell asked consumers what they could do to reduce carbon emissions. This move was interpreted as shifting responsibility to consumers and considered greenshifting.

 

4. Greenlabelling: An example is a manufacturing company's strategy in 2019, claiming its bottle was made from 100% "ocean plastic." However, it was later revealed that this plastic was "ocean-bound plastic," meaning it was collected from areas close to the ocean rather than the ocean itself. This misleading labeling was considered greenlabelling.

 

5. Greenrinsing: Some beverage companies continually changed their recycling targets without achieving them. One company did this twice in the last five years, and another three times. This strategy was considered greenrinsing because it involved continually changing their targets.

 

6. Greencrowding: An example is an organization's strategy to reduce plastic waste and increase recycling. This organization recycled less than 0.0004% of global plastic waste in its first three years of operation. This showed how ineffective the group was in combating environmental issues and was considered greencrowding.

These examples illustrate various greenwashing types worldwide. It is important to be vigilant against such misleading practices and demand transparency.

Greenwashing and Sustainability

Greenwashing and other misleading strategies hinder real progress in sustainability and undermine consumer trust. To prevent such misleading practices, companies need to be transparent and honest, consumers need to make informed choices, and regulatory bodies need to increase their oversight. Companies should take concrete steps to substantiate their sustainability claims and be transparent. Consumers should question the environmental impact of the products they purchase and make informed choices. Regulatory bodies should oversee misleading green claims and encourage genuine sustainability efforts.

As consumers, being aware of these strategies and supporting genuine environmentally friendly practices is one of the important steps toward a sustainable future.

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