By Nadiah Arif (BSc Business Economics) & Thomas Panton (MSc Climate Change & International Development)
Thomas and Nadiah are the creators of ‘The Topic’; a podcast where each episode covers a relevant and important topic in an educational but conversational way, making it easy to listen to and learn something whilst enjoying the content produced. In the first episode, they discuss the term ‘greenwashing’ and the different ways this term can be understood.
It’s wild to think that there is such a wide understanding of what climate change is, and of course the impact that we as a species are having on it, and yet there is still dialogue on how companies manipulate the public for their own interests. The term that is generally used for this deception is greenwashing. But what exactly is greenwashing, and how is the metaphorical wool being pulled over our very literal eyes?
“Greenwashing is essentially when a company makes out that it is being eco friendly or sustainable when in real terms it is having a negative impact on the planet.“
There are a lot of companies, particularly big brands, that have mastered the skill of greenwashing. It makes it very hard to distinguish the truly sustainable businesses from the smokescreens in front of the polluters. We’ve seen multiple companies and industries actually fund research to disprove scientific fact so that they perceivably can continue their operations unmolested. A good example of this is the oil and gas industry, who have managed to convince well-meaning individuals into believing they care about the environment when they literally drill for oil. Some 20 years ago, BP ran a campaign to rebrand itself as ‘green’ – the new yellow-green sunflower logo began flooding our service stations and they committed to investing in renewable energy. But, 18 years later, only 3% of BP’s investments were actually focused on ‘clean energy’ (and that’s not even mentioning the oil spill disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010).
With climate change such a crucial issue, its perhaps not surprising that tactics go beyond any simple marketing narrative and now impact on all areas of business modelling. See, for example, carbon-offsetting plans used by the likes of the aviation industry. An easyJet-backed offsetting project in the Amazon has recently been alleged to be run by two logging firms which have cut down tree species declared ‘vulnerable’ by the IUCN Red List. This sort of ‘smart’ business policy can allow companies to continue to have an incredibly heavy impact on the planet without accountability.
Might greenwashing be the Achilles heel in eco-capitalism? Might it mean businesses can continue to adopt short-term behaviour focused on immediate profit, rather than long-term sustainability? Might this risk planetary calamity? If you’re interested in these issues, visit our podcast The Topic. Thomas and Nadiah talk about everything, from climate change to human rights. The aim of our podcast is to not only spread awareness, but also inspire people to take care of themselves, others and the planet.
National Geographic | Deepwater Horizon
‘Greenwash” is a topic we should be careful with. 😊