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Making false, misleading, and unsubstantiated claims about the sustainability and environmental impact of a product, service, or business is wrong and dangerous. In our fight against climate change, it is imperative that our ecologically positive actions are real and impactful. Given the recent rise in the environmental consciousness of consumers and investors seeking services and businesses that are sustainable, more and more organizations are claiming to be green when in reality they are not.
In this article, we explore how companies can become more environmentally conscious, substantiate their sustainability claims, and avoid “greenwashing.”
Understanding greenwashing
When an organization’s management makes exaggerated and frequently unsupported claims about the sustainability of its products, services, or even business processes to create the appearance of being environmentally friendly when they are not, this practice is known as “greenwashing.” The majority of the time, they make use of public media, such as television and print commercials, and can now leverage social media awareness campaigns to reach a large audience. Although some companies may act unintentionally, these acts are frequently thought of as deliberate. Greenwashing practices are nothing new; some of them date back decades to deceptive claims of being environmentally friendly. In the 1980s, an American environmentalist coined the phrase “greenwashing.”
Coincidentally, the first well-known instance of greenwashing was committed by Chevron, a significant oil firm in the United States at the time. This oil business invested a fortune in pricey print and television commercials in 1985 to persuade the public of its environmental sustainability. This greenwashing campaign was so effective that it was used as a case study by Harvard Business School and won the Effie Advertising Awards in 1990. As claimed in their commercials, Chevron was not actually taking action to safeguard biodiversity and wildlife; instead, it benefited from the favorable public reaction and outperformed other oil firms in terms of environmental reputation rankings. That campaign is now regarded as the gold standard of greenwashing
Over the past two decades, global action has been needed to stop the tide of climate change, and ideas like ESG and sustainability have become even more crucial to the operations of businesses. As a result, we find that there are more instances of companies engaging in greenwashing because the environmental impact of these businesses has become one of the factors that affect investor and consumer decisions. Companies find that they need to project a green image in order to garner favor. The last ten years have seen a rise in interest in green marketing as firms and enterprises increasingly emphasize sustainability and ESG.
A corporation must be able to prove its positive environmental impact by responding to the “when-where-how much” question if it wants to make the claim that it is sustainable. Apple, the top smartphone manufacturer in the world, is an illustration of a company that actively makes green decisions and invests in green solutions. Apple has poured billions of dollars into green initiatives in the last few years. Apple launched the 4.7 billion-dollar Green Bond in 2021 to support the development of clean energy. Over the years, Apple has engaged in extensive green marketing and proven its claims to be ecologically friendly. The truth is that companies can engage in green marketing without cheating the environment.
Companies can achieve true environmental accountability and avoid greenwashing.
The last ten years have seen a rise in interest in green marketing as firms and enterprises increasingly emphasize sustainability and ESG. A corporation must be able to prove its positive environmental impact by responding to the “when-where-how much” question if it wants to make the claim that it is sustainable. Apple, the top smartphone manufacturer in the world, is an illustration of a company that actively makes green decisions and invests in green solutions.
Apple has poured billions of dollars into green projects over the past few years. Apple launched the 4.7 billion dollar Green Bond in 2021 to support the development of clean energy. Over the years, Apple has engaged in extensive green marketing and proven its claims to be ecologically friendly, answering important questions while doing so. Transparency is a crucial component of environmental accountability that businesses must implement in order to prevent greenwashing. The majority of businesses are not open about their positive environmental activities.As firms work to be more environmentally friendly, it gets harder to tell if there is a good follow-up on the sustainability projects they claim to have undertaken.
Learn about carbon credit transparency problems.
Setting definite timelines and objectives that the general public can evaluate and actively monitor is one of the best ways for businesses to be transparent. For instance, the best-known toy manufacturer in the world, LEGO, has committed to “becoming green” and has invested almost $150 million in this case. By 2030, LEGO wanted to make sure that all of its toy bricks were manufactured from environmentally friendly materials. To that end, they developed a platform that lets people track the progress of this initiative in real time.
Blockchain can make it easier.
Blockchain technology provides a platform for addressing a wide range of issues, including the transparency of green programs and other carbon offset solutions. We recently examined the effects of greenwashing on carbon credit markets as well as the solution provided by blockchain technology. Going green is important, but doing so transparently and answering pertinent questions is even more important. Blockchain technology has the potential to eliminate the need for these questions in the first place.
Reliable and credible information can be gathered using data from a virtually infinite number of monitoring devices, including drones, cameras, nano-satellites, and possibly Internet of Things applications in the near future. This information can then be stored using blockchain technology, which guarantees that the data is verified and nearly impossible to manipulate. Integrating distributed ledger technology into green initiatives and sustainability goals can significantly improve climate change efforts by ensuring accountability and transparency about climate actions and their environmental implications.
Bottom Line.
It is important to acknowledge that the desire of companies to be seen as “green” and eco-friendly and taking marketing steps to portray this image is a step in the right direction and, in fact, should be encouraged. What this does is create a larger platform for corporate sustainability. However, it is important that these companies become environmentally accountable and show proof of impact, as it would be a great disservice to the environment and their consumers. The best way to do so is through complete transparency and sustainability efforts.
Several projects are currently using blockchain innovations to champion sustainability and environmental good causes such as rainforest conservation, farmland regeneration, ocean plastic removal, etc. By partnering and working together, these firms, which are utilizing blockchain technology in their services, provide one of the best modern solutions to greenwashing. It eliminates the need to build from scratch and simply leverages the transparency of blockchain technology these projects offer.
