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Patrick Sanford

Professor Kelly

ENGL 2620

23 May 2017

Greenwashing

In recent decades there has been a continual trend in increasing environmental awareness.

In many circles it has become socially advantageous to be environmentally conscious and it has

become a large part of hipster lifestyle. Marketing agents have therefore taken advantage of the

growing environmental sentiment and in many cases exploit it. This phenomenon has become

known as greenwashing. It first came into use in the early 1980s and is defined by the Oxford

English Dictionary as Disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an

environmentally responsible public image. The word itself is a play on the word whitewashing

which metaphorically refers to the process of describing or marketing some process, action,

product, or service as being ethically sound even when it is not. In a similar way greenwashing

refers to making some product or service seem to be environmentally friendly, even when it truly

is not.

This phenomenon has only recently become common, but green marketing has been

common since the dawn of electricity. The smaller electrical consumption of some products

reduced the cost of electricity bills. More recently however advertising has also focused on the

environmental sustainability of a product, the materials used in its production, and the production

process itself as well as the energy consumption. The power of focusing on these
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attributes is such that the environmental virtues of every range of products and services are

exaggerated and embellished to increase sales. In recent years it has become common to simply

add the label "green" onto foods, appliances, and cars even when this attribute isn't necessarily

true. In many cases it is a part truth, where the product may be better for the environment than its

competitors, but the product itself still is not environmentally friendly. As a result, every

marketer competing for the same market will focus on some element of the product and describe

it as "green" and therefore to the consumer it appears that every product is "green". Consumers

are drawn to this type of labeling because they believe that in some small part they are doing

some good for the entrainment. Many individuals and organizations, such as Greenpeace,

actively work towards the formation of an environmentally neutral economy as Stephanie

Lemenager and Teresa Shewry say in their essay Green, Some environmentalists chased the

conciliatory idea of a green economy devoted to products and services intended to minimize and

even remediate harm to the environment (129). As this sentiment has increased, so too has the

prevalence of greenwashing.

A practical example of greenwashing can be seen in the marketing of the car company

Subaru. Many of their cars are billed as a "Partial Zero Emissions Vehicle", but what does this

even mean? The catalytic converter of most modern cars drastically reduce harmful emissions

including carbon monoxide. The EPA does not mandate that car companies produce a car which

produces no carbon monoxide, even though most modern car companies produce vehicles that

release none. Subaru is one of these companies. They engage in a fierce marketing campaign to

convince the consumer that their vehicles are especially eco-friendly, when in fact they are

ostensibly the same as most other vehicles on the road. The issue is that Subaru by no means is
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the only company behaving in this manner, in fact almost every car company is guilty of

greenwashing in some way. Every car commercial seems to indicate that the vehicle is eco-

friendly and has won some award proving the same.

The proliferation of Greenwashing is due to its effectiveness at selling products to

consumers. In the essay Ecotourism, Robert Figueroa says The tourism industry and agencies

have developed official certification schemes to thwart greenwashing practices. However,

greenwashing can evade even this certification remedy, as the industry has witnessed a flood of

such schemes (86). Figueroa enters the discussion here to focus on how tourist agencies attempt

to convince travels that their particular destinations and trips are environmentally neutral, and

that this marketing is so effective that many businesses attempt to get around the regulations to

market their non-environmentally friendly services in this way.

The social impact of greenwashing is also important to consider as it has shaped public

opinion of the term, its evolution, and the resulting green marketing. In many cases

greenwashing has led to the stunting of environmental protection projects as many individuals

believe they are already doing their part for the environment, even though they have only been

taken in by some greenwashing scheme. The Toyota Prius is billed as an environmental savior

and many drivers believe that they are doing their part for the environment simply by driving

one. However, the electrical components in the vehicle require heavy metals to manufacture. The

mining and processing of such metals are devastating to the environment, and also classify as

toxic waste when the car is finally scrapped. Similarly, the emphasis on green has made many

individuals insensitive to the word. As it has become part of our common lexicon it has lost

much of its power.

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To the average person greenwashing means nothing more than that suddenly everything

in the store has an eco-friendly label on it. The word greenwashing itself does not carry much

power in the public mind as most consumers are incapable of separating a greenwashing scheme

from true green marketing. This public reaction has created something of a dichotomy when it

comes to the use and understanding of this word. For environmentalists, especially true purists,

greenwashing represents a constant and epic struggle between them and polluting corporations

trying to cover up their environmentally detrimental actions.

 Works Cited

Lemenager, Stephanie. Shewry, Teresa "Green." Keywords for Enviornmental Studies. New York
City: New York University Press, 2016. 128-130.
Figueroa, Robert Melchior. "Ecotourism." Key Words for Enviornmental Studies. New York City:
New York University Press, 2016. 86-88.