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Ensure that you aren't making false claims that your company or products are environmentally friendly, which can damage customers' trust.
Consumers now expect businesses to take proactive measures to protect the planet and people, which means brands must demonstrate their commitment to sustainability in a tangible way. According to estimates from Statista, 44 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that prioritizes sustainability. That means brands that fail to do so are potentially leaving money on the table.
However, exaggerating your commitment to sustainability can backfire and cause lasting damage to your brand’s reputation. By misrepresenting what your company is doing to protect the environment and build ethical supply chains, you could lose your customers’ trust for years to come. This practice, known as greenwashing, should be avoided at all costs.
Greenwashing is when an organization invests in marketing campaigns that position the company as environmentally friendly rather than actually minimizing its environmental impact. It’s a deceitful marketing gimmick used by companies to exaggerate their environmentally friendly actions. It is intended to mislead consumers who prefer to buy goods and services from environmentally conscious brands.
Environmentalist Jay Westerveld coined the term “greenwashing” in 1986, in a critical essay inspired by the irony of the “save the towel” movement in hotels that had little impact beyond saving hotels money in laundry costs. The idea emerged in a period when most consumers received their news primarily from television, radio and print media, so they couldn’t fact-check the way they could today.
Companies that have engaged in greenwashing on a wide scale have made headlines over the years. In the mid-’80s, for example, oil company Chevron commissioned a series of expensive television and print ads to broadcast its environmental dedication. But while the now-infamous “People Do” campaign ran, Chevron was actively violating the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, as well as spilling oil into wildlife refuges.
Chevron was far from the only corporation making outrageous claims. In 1991, chemical company DuPont announced its double-hulled oil tankers with ads featuring marine animals prancing in chorus to Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” It turned out that the company was the largest corporate polluter in the U.S. that year.
Greenwashing has changed over the past 20 years, but it’s certainly still around. It’s easy to see why marketers are enthusiastic: According to Statista, 64 percent of Gen Zers and 59 percent of millennials are willing to spend more on a product if it comes from a sustainable brand. But greenwashing can also have serious consequences, including the following:
These consequences can be so steep that it’s never worth it to engage in greenwashing.
Here are 10 basic greenwashing tactics to avoid:
There are plenty of socially responsible businesses telling their environmental stories to the world, and even some that aren’t but should be. Incidents of “pure greenwash” — purposeful untruths about a product’s impact — aren’t widespread. However, many examples come close.
Some corporate buzzwords commonly used to greenwash could be seen as a “slippery slope,” and companies should educate their marketers on the ethics of green branding. This sort of training can help avoid the unintentional greenwashing that comes from exaggerating or misrepresenting your sustainability practices out of an innocent-but-overeager effort to spread the word.
Use the following strategies to ensure that your company is not greenwashing.
There’s a fine line between green marketing and greenwashing. Unlike greenwashing, green marketing is when companies sell products or services based on legitimate environmental positives.
Green marketing is generally practical, honest and transparent, and it means that a product or service meets the following criteria:
However, it’s easy for green marketing to translate to greenwashing in practice when an organization doesn’t live up to the sustainable business practices. “Eco-friendly,” “organic,” “natural” and “green” are just some of the widely used labels that can be confusing and misleading to consumers.
If you’re ready to slap some grass on your logo, be transparent with customers about your company’s practices and have information readily available to back up your claims.
It’s important to put your best foot forward when it comes to sustainable practices, and it’s understandable that you’d want to communicate these efforts to your customers. However, it’s important not to overstate the impact of your work, because even seemingly innocent exaggerations could have harmful consequences for your brand. Do your best to tell your company’s sustainability story and avoid greenwashing.
Tejas Vemparala and Jennifer Dublino contributed to this article. Source interviews were conducted for a previous version of this article.