Choosing Between Good & Evil: Going Green or Green Washing?

“Green washing” is a pejorative term used to describe spurious attempts some companies make to claim themselves as “green” when they really aren’t. If you look closely enough, plenty of companies use various ways to ‘greenwash’. It might have short term benefits but could hurt companies in the long run.

How ‘Green Washing’ came to be?

Jerry Mander -- a Madison Avenue advertising executive, along with a few others, once called the extensive “greenwashing” as “ecopornography” -- thanks to the rush on “going green” and the importance of going environment friendly in the 19060s and continuing to this day. Reportedly, in the year 1969, public utility companies have spent a lot more than $300 million touting their anti-pollution efforts.

The 1980 saw some devastating events happening like the Bhopal Gas Tragedy and then others like Chernobyl. Early into the 1990s, corporate environmentalism starting taking a new meaning of its own and rose in its incidence and sophistication. Slowly, pretty much during the same time, the “ecopornography” spread to Europe and the third world countries like Malaysia, Singapore, etc.

The advent of globalization; increasing pressure on companies to turn environment friendly; the lure of easy brand enhancement by turning esuriently; the mounting pressure from governments across the world to turn a new leaf have all contributed to rampant green washing.

There is a reason why green washing is rampant. According to a AARP study, there are approximately 40 million green-boomers in the United States -- environmentally conscious customers who make up for more than half of the 80 million odd baby-boomers. We aren’t even talking about the younger green-minded, environmentally conscious consumers yet. This chunk of population makes for an attractive consumer group that no corporate wants to let go of.

So why is Green washing wrong?

•   To state the obvious, green washing is immediately misleading. It tries to showcase a persona for the companies that simply belie the environmental misleading that the company is trying to do. The whole act of green washing aims to deceive us. As a result, it will not go down well with stakeholders, the industry itself, the government and the media.
•   Greenwashing would make the whole cry to go green seem juvenile. It might bring about complacency and breed more problems. If a corporation can make claims about being green when it apparently isn’t, other companies might just follow suit and it might just become a “fad” that seems to have erupted out of no-where. Extensive greenwashing would eliminate any seriousness going green or being environment friendly would have.
•   Greenwashing depletes brand value and engenders cynicism. If customers eventually come to realize that they have been deceived and that they have been patronizing a company that claims to have gone green but it really hasn’t, it isn’t a good feeling. It can hurt the brand value. Brands shape up after expending a lot of time, effort and money going into it and it cannot risk a downfall like this one.
• Consumers who are victims of green washing live in a social illusion and add to the environmental degradation caused due to green washing in the first place. The use of these products hurts the quality of life for our future generations.

Are you really going green or playing with the concept through green washing?