When Brands Fake Being Green

According to a report by TerraChoice Environmental Marketing, ‘greenwashing’ (the act of deliberatley deceiving customers about the environmental practices of their company or green aspects of their products) is quite pervasive.  In fact, the report cites ’six sins of greenwashing’ to help customers understand the potential deceptions that products branded as green may be guilty of perpetrating.

Jonathon Morgan at Green Daily did a great job of summarizing the six sins of greenwashing.  Here’s a recap with a focus on branding:

1. Hidden Trade Off: This greenwashing sin is committed when companies advertise one eco-friendly attribute, and completely ignore their product’s other non-green attributes, which could do more harm than the advertised green attribute does good.
2. No Proof: This greenwashing sin is committed when a company hypes its product or brand with green claims that can’t be proven.  Interestingly, Jonathon notes that the report found 26% of environmental claims fall into this category.
3. Vagueness:  This greenwashing sin is committed when a company uses vague terms to describe its supposedly green product such as “chemical-free” or “non-toxic.” Jonathon notes that these terms are vague because they are both universally true and universally false depending on your interpretation.
4. Irrelevance: This greenwashing sin is committed when companies make claims that might be true but are misleading or altogether unhelpful.  Jonathon cites the example of companies using the claim “CFC-free” on a product’s label which is useless since CFCs were banned approximately 30 years ago.
5. Lesser of Two Evils: This greenwashing sin is committed when companies try to make a bad thing seem, well, less bad.  Jonathon uses the example of ”green” herbicides, a term which tries to hide the fact that herbicides in any form are bad for the environment.
6. Fibbing: This greenwashing sin is committed when companies blatantly lie.  They’re not trying to simply massage the facts, but rather, they completely make up their green claims.  The TerraChoice Environmental Marketing report does note that less than 1% of companies are guilty of committing the fibbing sin when it comes to the greening of their products.

So what does this tell us in terms of branding and the environment?  First, and I don’t think this comes as a new idea to many people, there should be some regulations around green claims in manufacturing and advertising.  I can imagine the marketing meetings where copywriters are directed to find ways to hype a company’s minor or nonexistent greenness and the resulting greenwashing that can be explained away as simply massaging the truth.  It’s unfortunate that this happens because truly green products, consumers and ultimately the environment are the ones to suffer.

What are your thoughts about greenwashing?  How can a truly green brand compete against greenwashed brands in the eyes of consumers?