Greenwashing - Transcript
Greenwashing is a form of marketing spin in which green marketing is deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization’s products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.
Critics of the practice suggest the rise of greenwashing, paired with ineffective regulation, contributes to consumer skepticism of all green claims, and diminishes the power of the consumer to drive companies toward greener manufacturing processes and business operations. Many corporations use greenwashing to improve public perception of their brands. Complex corporate structures can further obscure the big picture.
Without external monitoring and verification, greenwashing strategies amount to corporate posturing and deception. When a company decides to behave responsibly and adopts a sustainable development vision, it may have to change its corporate culture deeply, in order to understand and appropriate the concept. It is not enough to integrate sustainable development into communication to persuade the consumer to buy.
While greenwashing is not new, it has increased in recent years to meet consumer demand for environmentally-friendly goods and services. New regulations and laws aim to discourage companies from using greenwashing to deceive consumers.
