Greenwashing: Claiming Much and Doing Little
By Declan Kaasler
In any industry, for any product, public perception is everything. That has been a constant for as long as people have been buying and selling from one another. Especially in today’s modern consumer environment, it is just as crucial for manufacturers and stakeholders to effectively promote a product’s merits and present itself as benign and innocuous as possible. Similarly how, during the 20th Century, cigarette manufacturers did everything possible to control the narrative surrounding tobacco. Learn more about how greenwashing tactics manipulate consumer perception in Ocean Blue Project’s Greenwashing Report.
The same thing is happening today as more people become aware of the global environmental movement. Attitudes are evolving rapidly, and in a collective need to keep up, many brands have enacted meaningful change. However, others have elected to build up the facade of environmental awareness. These sneaky tactics, known as greenwashing, seek to lull the consumer into a false sense of ease and continue supporting the product.
1. The Power of Green
The tactics behind greenwashing are largely subtle as they seek to influence our behavior from the background. However, the excessive use of the color green is one of the most straightforward examples of the practice. The word itself is a symbol, likely inspiring images of dense verdant forests teeming with life or of fresh young plants shooting skyward under the springtime sun. For most people, green is the color of growth, nature, purity, and cleanliness.
It’s no surprise that the color is so often exploited by brands trying to pass on those sentiments to stand out on a crowded store shelf. You have likely seen this effect countless times, but it can be hard to notice how frequently it is used. Today, one of the easiest ways to exude a positive, “natural” impression is to cover your product packaging in green, ideally with images of leaves for added effect.
This pushy paint job might seem harmless at first, but it serves to distract and minimize in the consumer’s mind. By conjuring up serene images of nature and purity, a product can get the consumer’s mind off the product itself or what happens after it gets tossed.
For example, Kimberly Clark, manufacturer of Huggies Diapers, also features a line of “Natural” baby wipes with packaging covered in, you guessed it, green leaves. Of course, the product itself has nothing to do with the symbolism.
2. Paper Straws
In 2015, a Texas A&M University research team made a shocking discovery off the coast of Costa Rica. The team encountered an unfortunate sea turtle with a plastic straw lodged centimeters into its nostril. The upsetting video they recorded soon went viral and became a crystal clear indicator of the problem of trash finding its way into the ocean. Before it became a hazard to marine life, plastic straws began as just another disposable plastic product to be thrown away after a single use.
In the years that followed, plastic straws have rightfully drawn more ire and scrutiny from the public. They have even been outlawed in some jurisdictions because nobody wants to be
responsible for the next sea turtle.
The switchover to paper straws has yet to be a mass movement. Since it has primarily remained voluntary, adoption is slower in certain areas. While the new paper straws themselves have found themselves the butt of many frustrated jokes already, the still-voluntary nature of their rollout has morphed into a form of greenwashing, albeit with noble intentions.
My first exposure to this trend was at my local McDonald’s during the summer of 2019. You don’t notice any difference in the straw at first until you try to take a drink with it. Paper straws somewhat soak up a drink, and the feeling of wet cardboard in your mouth is unpleasant. More important than the dining experience, though, is the bottom line of fast food places like McDonald’s and its competitors. Regardless of the effect of switching from plastic to paper straws, it allows companies to appear to be “doing something” about the environment. With the world souring on plastic straws, the logic is that a straw made from any other material must be good, even if it makes for a worse straw.
3. Selective Statistics
Like the industry-wide overuse of green and natural imagery, consumer goods manufacturers love bombarding our senses with product information. This information has served primarily to inform consumers of the product’s merits, how to use it, or why they should buy it. Some of the information a company shares with the public serves another purpose: to paint themselves and the product positively among environmentally aware shoppers.
Often, when a product seems to be trying extra hard to come off as “green,” there is some greenwashing afoot. A product’s packaging could come with a bright logo or seal advertising some goal of sustainability that it met. These are just as much part of the marketing as the product’s logo and design, and they present some claims that sound good but provide little clarification. A common example is that we’ll often see it boasting, “Made from 100% Recycled Material” on cardboard or paper packaging.
Such greenwashing isn’t necessarily lying to the consumer. Still, it seeks to manipulate and create an image that may or may not represent reality. Yes, recycled material is environmentally more sustainable than virgin material, but to what extent? By telling ourselves, “Oh, it’s alright, it’s recycled,” we forget the lingering environmental echoes that still factor in and may not feel as bad buying more.
4. Questionable Certifications
Like the rampant use of misleading slogans, brands boast about any tests the product may have passed. Suppose a test can be done to leave a big shiny reward logo featured prominently on the packaging. In that case, a brand can easily enhance the public perception of it for not much work. A recognizable and trustworthy logo can and does help sell products, too.
The Energy Star Program began in 1992 after the US Government saw a need for a standardized system of measuring and certifying energy efficiency. In the years since, it has become a ubiquitous symbol that adorns consumer electronics. The Energy Star Program is an example of certification done correctly, with a legitimate and realistic standard to reach. Today, any consumer seeing the Energy Star logo on a potential purchase can be assured that it was tested and guaranteed prior.
There are less scrupulous actors out there, with just as much need to sell a product to as many people as possible. It’s a common greenwashing tactic for brands to invent a certification or logo to add to the shelf appeal. Without regulatory oversight, anyone can design an official-looking badge with arbitrary product requirements. Unless you stop and examine all the fine print on your shopping trips, you’ll likely be none the wiser.
5. Shifting The Blame
Not all greenwashing is as blatantly visible as the above examples. When manufacturers and brands need to absolve themselves of guilt, sometimes the simplest solution is to play the blame game. Ever since the 1970s, the narrative surrounding environmental protection has been focused on the individual. In the US and other Western countries, much of our consumption is a solo affair. Therefore, wouldn’t it make sense for companies and brands to remind us of that fact?
Some of the earliest PSAs released to address the importance of recycling and lowering pollution made it clear to you, the viewer, that the power was in your hands to fight climate change. The famous “Crying Indian” PSA featured images of an indigenous man paddling his way through increasingly filthy waters, with discarded soda bottles scraping up against his canoe. He finally pauses at the side of a busy freeway, only to sob at the sight of people polluting his beautiful world carelessly.
It was a poignant and compelling piece of messaging that significantly accelerated the mass movement of recycling in the United States. Unfortunately, it was always a mistruth. Recycling is essential, and we should continue to do our part. Still, by shifting the focus towards responsible consumption, manufacturers were able to hide the harm in their businesses.
While recycling is a vital piece of the solution, current practices aren’t what they seem either. Specifically, keep an eye out for recycling methods that seem like magic; like advanced plastic recycling with pyrolysis. Greenwashing exists in waste management and plastics industries. It’s important to be aware and open to learn about the pros and cons of the latest technologies.
6. Exporting The Problem
Ultimately, companies and brands that engage in greenwashing are trying to make a sale. Consumers need to realize that fact when they are making a purchase. They have to be aware of the subtle manipulations and psychology intentionally laid out for them to find. When all else fails, though, the final and drastic step can be had for merely the cost of a shipping container.
For those living in an affluent market like the United States, it’s difficult to see or imagine what will become of all that has been created. American consumers are very fortunate, having early access to almost all consumer goods on Earth. The latest and greatest technologies and products, including international imports, can be had in American shops.
This endless supply of material goods doesn’t just flow in, though. It also flows out from American shores and carries our garbage with it. Greenwashing is all about creating a fantasy in the consumer’s mind to convince them that everything is fine in the world or that buying just one more of a particular product is unlikely to do much harm. However, some places have been warped by the inevitable casting off of consumer goods.
The Ghanaian capital, Accra, is currently reeling from a flood of used clothing and old electronics. The textiles, known to the locals as “Dead White Man’s Clothes,” are discarded and scattered throughout the city. A pile of clothes has grown so massive that it more closely resembles a small mountain as cattle graze on it. On the beaches, thick, nightmarish ropes of old ripped clothes have become half-buried in the sand.
The electronics imported to Ghana are intended for resale, but much of what arrives there is junk already. Much of it goes to the dump, where a toxic economy has sprouted up. Our formerly beloved devices are thrown into bonfires, spewing up thick black smoke as young “Burner Boys” slowly poison themselves in the fumes, hoping to extract enough copper to sell for survival.
What’s happening in Accra is much the same as what is taking place all over the world. It is a real-world case of “Out of sight, out of mind.” The next time you go shopping, see if you can recognize any subtle bits of greenwashing sneakery. Remember that taking care of the planet’s health is more than just buying the right brands; it’s what we all do in the bigger picture that counts. If you are interested in caring for the world’s oceans, Ocean Blue Project works to keep our coasts and waterways pristine. Read more about how greenwashing tactics manipulate consumer perception in Ocean Blue Project’s Greenwashing Report.
Author Bio: Declan Kaasler is a content writer and passionate outdoorsman. Since watching Captain Planet as a boy in the early 00’s, he has made it his personal mission to help bring about a cleaner and more peaceful world.