Greenwashing

The History of Greenwashing

The first instances of what environmentalists now call greenwashing appeared in the late 1960s as part of a corporate response to the modern environmental movement that was catalyzed by Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring. During the 1980s, the environmental movement gained momentum as a result of the Bhopal, Chernobyl, and Exxon Valdez disasters. By the early 1990s, polls suggested that consumers were more likely to buy products from a company that had a sound environmental reputation; corporations responded by portraying themselves, and more of their products, as environmentally friendly. By the mid-1990s, firms were spending millions of dollars on public relations activities aimed at “greening” their images and managing environmental opposition.

The term greenwashing was originally confined to describing misleading instances of environmental advertising, but as corporations' efforts to portray themselves as environmentally virtuous have diversified and proliferated, so have charges of greenwashing.

The term is now used to refer to a wider range of corporate activities, including, but not limited to, certain instances of environmental reporting, event sponsorship, the distribution of educational materials, and the creation of “front groups.” (Front groups, such as the International Climate Change Partnership and the National Wetlands Coalition, are organizations that pose as independent advocacy groups, but which in fact are funded by and promote the interests of a particular corporation or group of corporations.)

It is important to note that not all environmental advertisements or public relations campaigns can fairly be labeled greenwashing, as there are genuinely environmentally conscious companies that use advertisements and other means to promote themselves as such. The clearest cases of greenwashing occur when these media are employed by firms to proclaim (or in some cases merely imply) a deep-seated devotion to sound environmental practice (usually by pointing out some specific accomplishments in that field) in an attempt to distract from its otherwise lackluster environmental performance. For example, a company that advertises its sole laudable environmental initiative to distract from its more environmentally deleterious activities, or a company that, despite being a recalcitrant polluter, boasts about a marginal reduction in emissions at one of its factories, would be clear targets for a charge of greenwashing. Similar suspicions arise when corporations within environmentally problematic industries sponsor grassroots environmental events such as Earth Day, or when corporations with poor environmental track records distribute environmental education videos to schools.

Why is Greenwashing Problematic?

The characteristics that render greenwashing subject to ethical criticism are related to, but differ somewhat from, those of other problematic types of promotional activities. Although a range of advertising and public relations techniques have been criticized for their potential to manipulate or coerce consumers, to manufacture desires, and generally to deceive the public, a certain degree of “puffery” or exaggeration has come to be expected, and in some cases considered acceptable, in the marketing of products or services. However, the use of similar tactics to publicize good corporate conduct—and in particular, corporate environmental achievements—has been deemed more problematic. One possible explanation for this is that companies [Page 1043]guilty of greenwashing are not just exaggerating their environmental accomplishments or contributions: They are claiming to be environmental champions when they are in fact environmental villains. Thus, the charge of greenwashing seems especially apt in instances where corporate environmental communications are not just exaggerated, but tastelessly ironic.

...