Greenwashing
Greenwashing is a form of gaslighting that industries use, touting their products and business as green and “earth-friendly,” while they continue to burn coal, oil, and natural gas, use plastics and chemicals in their products and manufacturing process, and pollute and destroy natural habitats.
They mislead the public into believing they have a conscience and care about people and planet. In reality, they care much more about producing products quickly and cheaply, in order to turn the highest profit possible, no matter how destructive it is to Earth and what human rights they violate in the process,
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According to the Oxford English Dictionary, greenwashing is the “activities by a company or an organisation that are intended to make people think that it is concerned about the environment, even if its real business actually harms the environment.” A common form of greenwash, they share, is to ‘publicly claim a commitment to the environment while quietly lobbying to avoid regulation.’
Essentially it’s a marketing spin – or ploy – by a business or person to make you believe they’re invested in eco-friendly, ethical practices when the reality is quite the opposite.
According to Ben Mead, managing director for Hohenstein, a founding member of OEKO-TEX, it’s simply the practice of falsely promoting an organisation’s environmental efforts. “Generally, the hallmarks of greenwashing include vague or unsubstantiated claims that give the organisation a false image of caring for the environment,” he explains.
Marie Clare, You’ve heard of greenwashing, but do you know how to spot – and stop – it happening?
“Criticism in the US of the oil industry’s obfuscation over the climate crisis is intensifying after internal documents showed companies attempted to distance themselves from agreed climate goals, admitted “gaslighting” the public over purported efforts to go green, and even wished critical activists be infested by bedbugs.
The communications were unveiled as part of a congressional hearing held in Washington DC, where an investigation into the role of fossil fuels in driving the climate crisis produced documents obtained from the oil giants ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and BP.
The new documents are “the latest evidence that oil giants keep lying about their commitments to help solve the climate crisis and should never be trusted by policymakers”, said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity.
“If there is one thing consistent about the oil and gas majors’ position on climate, it’s their utter inability to tell the truth,” Wiles added.
The Guardian, Criticism intensifies after big oil admits ‘gaslighting’ public over green aims
“On Thursday, a cadre of Big Oil CEOs will testify at a high-profile Congressional hearing examining whether their companies engaged in a campaign to mislead the public about climate change.
In the run-up to that hearing, those same Big Oil companies have been buying ads in the nation’s most popular political newsletters that mislead the public about climate change.
The email newsletter Punchbowl News, for example, was sponsored by ExxonMobil last week. Each day, three times a day, Exxon told more than 100,000 Punchbowl subscribers that the company is “working to reduce emissions and help advance climate solutions,” and “advancing climate solutions like carbon capture and storage to help create a lower-carbon energy future.”
The statements use a misinformation technique called “paltering,” said John Cook, a climate change communication researcher at Monash University. The term refers to the practice of saying things that are, on their own, literally true—but create a misleading overall impression.
“Paltering is commonly used in greenwashing, a form of climate misinformation where companies attempt to distract from their polluting behavior,” Cook said. “A company boasting about capturing CO2 when their core business is emitting CO2 into the atmosphere through burning fossil fuels is a textbook example of greenwashing.”
Heated, Misleading climate ads from Big Oil explode ahead of Big Oil climate hearing
“The two retailers have promised to “adjust or no longer use sustainability claims on their clothes and/or websites,” and ensure consumers are better-informed, according to a statement by The Netherlands’ Authority for Consumer Markets (ACM), after an investigation into potentially misleading marketing claims found that certain terms like “Ecodesign” and “Conscious” were not clear or sufficiently substantiated.
H&M and Decathlon will also donate €500,000 (about $508,000) and £400,000 respectively to causes linked to sustainability in the fashion industry.
In light of these commitments from the two companies, the ACM will not impose sanctions, the statement said. Decathlon said it is working with the ACM to address its findings that communication surrounding the brand’s “Ecodesign” label lacked clarity and detail. H&M acknowledged information shared on its site “could have been clearer and more comprehensive,” in an emailed statement. The company said it is committed to learning and establishing clearer industry-wide legal frameworks for communicating sustainability.
It’s the latest development in a growing regulatory crackdown on brands’ sustainability claims in Europe. Earlier this year, the Norwegian Consumer Authority ruled H&M and outerwear brand Nørrona could no longer use consumer-facing environmental product labels based on the Higg Index, a serious blow to the rollout of the tool developed by the Sustainable Apparel Coalition.”
Business of Fashion, H&M, Decathlon Dial Back Claims to Dodge Greenwashing Crackdown