With increased consumer awareness about environmental pollution and its adverse effects on the globe, consumers have begun to demand more environmentally-friendly products, including in their food choices (Chen et al., 2014). Hence, companies have started to resort to improving the environmental performance of their products to remain relevant in the market (Kim & Lyon, 2015). But what if the companies can do so without ever changing much of their products or processes? Let me introduce you to greenwashing, a marketing manoeuvre of products and processes deceptively used by companies to make their consumers believe that the products are environmentally-friendly, even if they are not so.
Step into a supermarket today and you are likely to see numerous products claiming to be “sustainable”, “all-natural” and “biodegradable”. However, most of these claims are just that, claims. In fact, one study by TerraChoice in 2010 found that a whopping 95% of products in North America claiming to be ‘green’ had at least committed one of the seven ‘sins of greenwashing’ (Dahl, 2010). One reason why companies are able to get away with such ‘green’ marketing is due to the regulations and control, or the lack thereof, of these terms that are used in their marketing manipulation. Given that there are no or vague legal definitions of these terms, companies are able to use them to paint their foods in a more ‘green’ manner. Other times, companies try to highlight one particular ‘green’ achievement, in the hopes of covering up the full truth or other aspects of the product that is environmentally pollutive. Here is a show that listed out 10 products, some of which are food-related like pans and dishwashing soap, from a supermarket chain in Canada that engages in greenwashing (CBC News, 2015). Try spotting them out yourself too and maybe you might pick up that skill to use it in your own lives.
However, we, as consumers, are not fully aware of these legal loopholes and assume that the companies really have turned over a new leaf and made their product more environmentally-friendly as we demand. This leads us to purchase, sometimes even at a premium price for the green tag (Nielsen, 2015), and consume these products with the mindset that we are reducing our environmental footprints. But little did we know that we are contributing to the problem without even knowing. You have probably seen Fiji, the premium-priced artesian water from Fiji in plastic bottles, on the shelves of stores. Well, below is an eye-opening video of how they had engaged in greenwashing so subtly that you would not catch it until fact-checked by other sources (Our Changing Climate, 2017).
Therefore, it is time for us to become a little more sceptical of ‘green’ labels that we see on the products in the retailers so as to not fall for those greenwashed. Do a little more homework to ensure that the green claims made by these companies are true and substantive before making your choice, or else you might end up contributing to environmental pollution even without knowing about it!
Trailing off,
Jade and Ridzuan
References
CBC News (2015). Greenwashing: Busting “eco” labels (CBC Marketplace). YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nys5TaGGkRk&ab_channel=CBCNews [Accessed 2 Oct. 2020].
Chen, Y.-S., Chang, C.-H., Yeh, S.-L. and Cheng, H.-I. (2014). Green shared vision and green creativity: the mediation roles of green mindfulness and green self-efficacy. Quality & Quantity, [online] 49(3), pp.1169–1184. Available at: https://link-springer-com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/article/10.1007/s11135-014-0041-8 [Accessed 29 Sep. 2020].
Dahl, R. (2010). Green Washing. Environmental Health Perspectives, [online] 118(6). Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898878/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2020].
Kim, E.H. and Lyon, T.P. (2014). Greenwash vs. Brownwash: Exaggeration and Undue Modesty in Corporate Sustainability Disclosure. Organization Science, [online] 26(3), pp.633–940. Available at: https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/10.1287/orsc.2014.0949 [Accessed 2 Oct. 2020].
Nielsen. (2015). Consumer-Goods’ Brands That Demonstrate Commitment to Sustainability Outperform Those That Don’t. [online] Available at: https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-releases/2015/consumer-goods-brands-that-demonstrate-commitment-to-sustainability-outperform/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2020].
Our Changing Climate (2017). Greenwashing: A Fiji Water Story. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOpa8kd6fBI&ab_channel=OurChangingClimate [Accessed 29 Sep. 2020].
