How to spot greenwashing this Earth Month and all year long
It’s Earth Month! And with that, comes a TON of greenwashing from wasteful brands. So, to avoid that, we’re going to discuss how to avoid greenwashing in depth. If you would like the condensed version, check out my free downloadable guide to spotting greenwashing.
First, let’s discuss: what is greenwashing anyway?
According to Merriam-Webster, greenwashing is "expressions of environmentalist concerns, especially as a cover for products, policies, or activities.” In simple terms, it’s when a company portrays itself as “green” or “eco” but they actually aren’t. I don’t want to say they’re lying, but they’re lying. Some brands don’t even KNOW they’re greenwashing while others do it maliciously and on purpose. There are many greenwashing tactics were going to dive into later.
Greenwashing can make shopping for eco-friendly products a hassle and very hard for the average consumer to differentiate between truly eco and fake eco. Not everyone has this knowledge, but that’s why we’re here today, to spread this knowledge.
Greenwashing tactics are a number of ways that brands and companies “trick” us into thinking that their product is more eco-friendly than it actually is. It can be literal lying, using false claims, using vague language, or just simply not having certifications to back them up. When looking for greenwashing, we must look at the WHOLE brand: the product, the packaging, the creation of the product, the shipping, the disposal, and every little thing in between. Now, you don’t need to spend hours digging, just some quick glances here and there at their website and social media can usually give you a good clue.
Tactic 1: Not Having Certifications
This one can be tricky for a few reasons:
1. Companies can in-house certify themselves, so we must get familiar with 3rd-party certifications
2. Just because a brand doesn’t have a certification doesn’t instantly mean they’re greenwashing
Then why is this a greenwashing tactic? Why would a brand not have a certification?
Some eco start-ups and small brands can’t afford the certification and they often take a lot of time. So, while some brands wait for the cert, they continue business as usual which could be super sustainable! So, this isn’t an instant red flag.
That being said, it is also just a super easy place to start vetting a brand without having to dig too far. Be sure to look for trusted certifications that are 3rd-party, not just in-house. You can learn more about a handful of certifications here. If they haven’t been certified that just means you have to dig a little bit deeper and watch out for these next tactics.
This can be used to greenwash still. This might prevent them from outright lying, but a common technique I see is brands using FSC-certified boxes and envelopes to ship their wasteful products. While I’m all for baby steps where you can make them, you can’t say you’re an eco-brand if this is your only effort.
Tactic 2: Hidden Trade-Offs
What this means is that a company’s pros don’t necessarily outweigh the cons. A SUPER common example I see is when a company boasts about how they use bioplastics that are compostable. While this is great, very few people have access to compost. Not to mention, most bioplastics are either not backyard compostable OR contain petroleum-based plastics anyway and can lead to microplastics right back in our soil. I’m still a huge fan of bioplastics, don’t get me wrong, but it’s extremely nuanced. I’m not saying to write off every brand you know of using bioplastics but see what else they are doing to be more eco. If this is all they’re doing, it smells of greenwashing to me. Anyway, the trade-off here is the bioplastic is going to the landfill which doesn’t really outweigh much. You can learn more about bioplastics here.
Tactic 3: Vagueness
This is a hugely popular one. My favorite personal claim I have seen is “up to 30% recycled plastic.” If you’re not familiar with legalese, this means that literally 0% could be recycled plastic. Some other common vague phrases are “more eco than leading detergents” and “this bottle could be made into a pair of jeans.” Sure, these might be true but there is no proof and the wording is so vague it could mean just about anything.
Vagueness is when brands and companies do not specify their claims and back them up with evidence and statistics. Other words like “eco” and “green” and “sustainable” and many more are not regulated words so brands can just slap them on products willy nilly just to make them more appealing to customers. ALWAYS check to see if they back up their claims in general, but especially when they’re using vague words. Ask yourself HOW is this product living up to these claims.
Tactic 4: Irrelevant claims
This tactic is used sort of as a diversion or a selling point. Basically, they say something that they KNOW will touch people and get them to buy the product while it doesn’t actually make much sense why they would even claim that.
Here’s an example by Megan of @acteevism on Instagram. In this post, she outlines that the brand House of Sunny claimed to be sustainable because their clothing is vegan, or at least they portrayed it as such. But this is totally irrelevant because vegan does not always equal sustainable, especially with clothing. The product they were selling was made of virgin plastic, not even recycled plastic, to make it animal-free. There are even plant-based options like cotton and hemp they could’ve chosen to be sustainable AND vegan.
And this is just one example. Other false claims would be saying they omit an ingredient that is already banned. Or, another favorite you can learn more about here, saying that their product is plastic-free when it actually contains PVA (polyvinyl alcohol) which IS plastic. In fact, that one is even on the verge of straight-up lying.
Tactic 5: Lesser of two evils
This is another common tactic I see quite often. This looks like companies flaunting that they use bioplastics (this one fits in this category, too) or glass over plastic because it’s better. But they aren’t great materials to swap to. Obviously, there is no perfect solution, but this single stat alone does not make a brand eco. Single-use anything whether that be metal, paper, or something else, is still a single-use item, and in a country where our recycling system is so flawed, any single-use is not an eco-friendly item. Especially if it was not made from recycled materials.
Tactic 6: Having an “eco” line
This is a hugely popular tactic with large brands and corporations. Here is an example of my first greenwashing video. I saw some bioplastic sponges (they were only partially bioplastic) that were a natural-looking color right next to the brand’s purely plastic sponges. If this brand was truly eco-friendly they would care about ALL their products. We also see fast fashion giants like H&M having an eco-line…just make all your clothes sustainably??
This also looks like brands during earth month using green labels and fonts or eco motifs like trees and the recycle symbol. This is all just for show. I like to think this one is easy to spot but can be hard to wrap your head around. Even if the product itself is the most sustainable thing you’ve ever seen, if the whole brand isn’t up to those standards, it’s greenwashing. It all comes back to looking at the brand as a whole
Tactic 7: Claiming it can be recycled
Ugh, I HATE this one. Just @ every major drink brand: Dasani, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and much more proudly flaunt their “recyclability.” Sure, plastic CAN be recycled but that doesn’t mean it WILL be recycled and recyclability does not equal sustainability. Coke is very popular for this right now with their new label that says “recyclable, see you again soon” as if the bottle will actually be recycled in this broken system and that’s if they even use recycled plastic.
Again, you have to ask yourselves some questions. If Coca-Cola really cared about recyclability, why don’t they take back all of their bottles to recycle them themselves? Or if they really cared, why aren’t they investing in local recycling plants or making recycling easier and more affordable?
Something else to consider here too is the resources going into making that product. Was the bottle (or can or box) made from recycled materials? If not, it takes huge amounts of resources to create a brand-new product. Not to mention, plastic and paper can only be recycled a handful of times so chances are, if it was made from recycled materials, its chances of being recycled again just went down.
Tactic 8: Green initiatives
Otherwise known as carbon offsetting. Be sure to check out my full post on carbon offsetting here to hear my full thoughts and go through all the facts. Not all carbon offsetting is greenwashing but it can be used as a greenwashing tactic. What this tactic means is that a product isn’t made with eco materials, it isn’t made with green energy, it isn’t designed to help someone reduce their waste or anything along those lines. It’s truly wasteful brands and companies that just pay reparations to the environment. This could look like brands giving money to charity, planting trees, cleaning up some trash, or something else.
Don’t get me wrong, these are great and I won’t ever bash on tree planting and beach clean-ups, but I will bash on the REASON. These wasteful brands are doing it for good publicity. If they truly cared about the environment, they wouldn’t pollute it in the first place.
Tactic 9: Misleading branding
This seems harmless, right? Brands like Dawn using baby ducks and animals on their bottles. Plastic grocery bags slapping the recycle symbol on there. Coca-Cola changing its label to green during earth month. This isn’t harming anyone, but it can make innocent shoppers think their money is going to a good place and a good cause but it’s really the same brands doing the same wasteful things.
ALWAYS be wary of recycle symbols and ask your recycling facility what can and can’t be recycled in your region as these symbols aren’t regulated and can be slapped on anything.
Tactic 10: Big picture statistics
What this looks like is when brands say how many gallons of water they’ve cut back or how many emissions they’ve reduced. While this looks great at a first glance, what they usually don’t disclose is where they started. They may have been creating astronomical levels of CO2 in the past but now create just a sliver less. Again, cutting back is great, but when they use this as an eco selling point is where it gets dirty. Anyway, if they say something like “We’ve cut back 20 tons of CO2” it sounds great, but if their total for the year is in the millions or billions of tons, then that’s just pocket change.
Tactic 11: Claims of biodegradability
Oof…this is a heavy hitter since most people don’t know the difference between compostable and biodegradable. In short, everything biodegrades, even plastic (over 1000s of years). Sure, it takes more time than food waste, but everything will break down back into nature at some point in time. This is why this claim (that is unregulated) is so easy to just slap on everything and make everyone think your product is sooo eco. On the other hand, compostable means it will decay and turn back into organic matter, again, think food waste. Be careful of this claim!
Tactic 12: Lying or hiding information
Yes, this one still happens. Something I see often in the zero-waste world is people starting zero-waste stores but drop shipping all of their items. If you don’t know, what drop shipping is it is mass-produced items of low quality and often made overseas which drastically increases their carbon footprints. Even if they don’t straight up lie about where something is made, if they do not disclose where and how their items are made that is deceptive and ultimately greenwashing.
Did I miss any greenwashing tactics? Let us know below!
Thank you for reading along, I hope you found this valuable, and it can help you all year long but especially during Earth Month when greenwashing is running rampant. If you want to test your skills before you head out to the store, download my free greenwashing guide which has a quiz and answers at the end.
I would love it if you shared this video/post with others to spread the word. The better we all become at spotting greenwashing, the harder it will be for companies to fool us, and the higher our standards will be for them. Ultimately, the more they get away with greenwashing, the lower the bar is, and the more money they will get to continue these habits.
But don’t stop there! Write to wasteful brands demanding they make changes and stop lying to consumers. You can learn more about letter writing here:
- How to write effective letters
- Letter writing examples I wrote and received
Thanks again and as always, remember that your small actions make a big difference in the long run :)
Emma
