Greenwashing - what's it all about?

Posted in: Helping Harry's Planet 11th April 2022

Painting a green picture for a company, product or service – is it based on statistics, is it misleading? The truth’s at stake!

 

Globally, going ‘green’ is becoming a profitable business strategy - green business practices not only open up a new market of environment lovers, but also enjoy a favourable public sentiment among existing customers.

Companies have therefore been tempted to use greenwashing as a way to increase business and improve their reputation (but does it actually do more harm than good?). 

‘Greenwashing’ is a term referring to the way something is branded as eco-friendly, green or sustainable when this is not truly the case - it misleads consumers like you and I into thinking that we will be helping the planet by choosing those specific products or buying from a particular company. 

As an analogy, greenwashing to corporations is like tree hugging is to individuals who say they care about the environment, it’s a symbolic reference that has little actual outcomes. And more so just confuses the issue attempting to be resolved.

Phrases such as "eco", "sustainable" and "green" are commonly used by companies to make the business appear environmentally conscious - but they rarely pertain to any scientific standards.

One example of greenwashing was seen in early 2020 when Ryanair audaciously announced itself to the British public as Europe’s “lowest emissions airline”. The claim was more or less made up and the Advertising Standards Agency promptly banned the ads.

Another example was when fossil fuel giant BP changed their name to Beyond Petroleum and publicly added solar panels on their gas stations. In December 2019, an environmental group called ClientEarth lodged a complaint against BP for misleading the public with its advertisements that focused on BP’s low-carbon energy products, when more than 96% of its annual spend is on oil and gas.

Whilst greenwashing is nothing new, there are now much stricter measures in place and all businesses are being held to account on this in the way they advertise, from the large supermarket chains to the small shops tucked away in countryside villages. 

Last year (2021) the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) warned all businesses that they have until the New Year (2022) to make sure their environmental claims comply with the law, before the CMA carry out a full review of misleading green claims and take action against offending firms.

To help businesses comply, in September 2021 they issued a “Green Claims Code”. This focuses on 6 key principles which state that all green claims must:

 

So, what are we doing about greenwashing?

 

As prompted in our Snapshot of 2021 & predicted trends for 2022, we are going the extra mile to add specific facts and figures to our website, flyers and product labelling to back up and validate any environmental claims we advertise, and give consumers more specific information. 

Over the last few months we’ve been in contact with our trusted suppliers and manufacturers to collate all the data we need to promote the environmental features of our products and we’ve been gradually adding to and updating content. 

To help our customers make more sustainable buying choices, you can now find new symbols on our product pages and refreshed descriptions with further detail on what makes some of our products that much kinder to our planet. Our Innovations team have also been hard at work to bring more sustainable products to the market, from Paper Cups to Paper Transfer Bags – check out our NEW “Kinder to our planet collection” here.

As and when we get new information, we’ll add this to our website to make sure you can access the most up to date information as soon as possible. We want to make your purchasing hassle free because we do give a monkeys! 

Together we care - Keep up to date with views and news in our Steps to Sustainability campaign section here