When you opened your phone one morning, you saw a news app notification, showing that your favorite clothing brand falsely claimed to have implemented a production process with significantly lower carbon emissions. When you opened TikTok, you were greeted by hundreds of videos of angry customers destroying their clothing from this brand, and you began to wonder how you should respond.
According to the United Nations, greenwashing is defined as “misleading the public to believe that a company or entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is.” In recent years, many companies have been accused of “greenwashing,” including Starbucks, Volkswagen, BP, and more, raising the question: why does greenwashing matter?
Public awareness of climate change has spiked over recent years, as videos of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and polar bears losing their homes in Antarctica have circulated on various social media platforms. Similar to the traction young activists like Greta Thunberg have gained over recent years due to their push for using renewable energy and extremist protests such as Just Stop Oil, which has also caused a greater media focus on climate change. Resulting in people becoming increasingly concerned for the state of the environment, increasing their vigilance while purchasing various products.
Therefore, when companies greenwash, they’re not only deceiving consumers, but they’re also making their products more valuable in the eyes of consumers, creating a trickling effect in which consumers will purchase products more, worsening the state of the environment, while also damaging consumer-producer relationships. The Round Up reports that 55 percent of consumers are willing to pay more for eco-friendly brands, therefore many companies can make more profits when they claim to be environmentally friendly.
Although some circumstances of greenwashing are heavily reported on, such as Volkswagen which cheated on pollution tests by modifying engine software, or Keurig which made recyclable coffee pods that many waste management companies don’t accept as recycling. There are also companies exaggerating their commitments and efforts to mitigate climate change through their practices, rather than legitimately making changes in their production processes.
According to reports from the European Union (EU), there was reason to believe that 42 percent of online websites with green claims were exaggerated, false, or deceptive, and could potentially qualify as unfair commercial practices under EU guidelines. Untruthful commercial practices develop a lack of trust between companies and their consumers and cause people to believe they’re leaving a more minimal impact on the environment than they actually are, while giving harmful companies more business.
The United States has lacked federally enforced regulations on companies’ sustainability despite consistently enforcing other product requirements, such as the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) food label requirements. Despite this, consumers are still able to check third-party certifications such as Greenguard, Oeko-Tex Standard 100, Better Cotton, and more, which verify a company’s sustainability claims by checking that production processes and final products are made with a minimal environmental impact, minimizing individual impact on the environment.
Despite the responsibility of companies to remain honest and cautious of their impact, there’s also a responsibility that falls on the consumer to ensure that the companies they’re purchasing from, because of sustainability claims, are taking legitimate action to limit their negative impact on the environment. To create change, people must take accountability for their impact on the environment, rather than placing all responsibility on massive corporations that are primarily aiming to increase profits.
It is important that people take into account the climate policies of politicians they elect into office, as part of their personal responsibility to minimize their impact on the environment, although this doesn’t always happen. Donald Trump, who will enter the Oval Office in January, pledges to reduce the usage of wind turbines and electric vehicles, pull back clean energy policies, and increase fossil fuel production. During these changes, the responsibility to ensure sustainability and hold brands accountable will fall on consumers, who must affirm that the brands they’re shopping from are putting in effort to minimize their environmental impact.