Greenwashing is taking the world by storm and not in a positive way. Greenwashing is the process by which organizations communicate that they are sustainable but in reality are not. With an increased demand for transparency from the public, a number of companies are facing severe backlash for employing greenwashing tactics in their promotions and company communications.
HSBC was one such company that recently faced backlash. Apart from promising to work towards reducing carbon emissions and undertake sustainable activities, there has been a growing cry from environmentalists to ask people to consider an organization’s fingerprint. A term brought out by the cleaning company Seventh Generation, it refers to the involvement of their partners with other stakeholders. For example, if an advertising company working with Seventh Generation also works with an unsustainable organization; Seventh Generation to some extent has its fingerprint in the profits of an unsustainable organization, even if they did not know it. In another case, if an organization promises that they are sustainable, yet directly collaborates with other external stakeholders with a negative impact on the environment– they are said to also be greenwashing.
This was the case for HSBC, in October 2021, bus stops in London and Bristol saw HSBC adverts stating their promise to help their clients achieve the ‘net-zero’ climate dream (reducing carbon emissions to zero). However, the Advertising Standards Authority of the UK (ASA) flagged these posters stating that HSBC’s claims are not fully accurate (Liang, 2022). The big bank has financed a number of organizations that directly contribute to increasing carbon emissions. The issue here was that HSBC was not transparent in where they actually invest their assets (areas where they had their fingerprint in) which in turn reduced the ‘potency’ of their net-zero message; along with sowing distrust in their consumers, as they were flagged for spreading misinformation. This issue was the first of many; shortly after being called out for the misleading advertisements, a senior official stated that climate change and its dangers are far too exaggerated.
HSBC Advertisement in London
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/oct/19/watchdog-bans-hsbc-ads-green-cop26-climate-crisis
In my eyes, greenwashing is often seen mainly in consumer products such as the Volkswagen scandal but it is interesting to look into the service sector and what greenwashing can look like on their part. This is particularly important so that we are able to efficiently identify when as consumers, we are not being given the complete picture.
References:
Liang, A. (2022, October 19). HSBC Climate Change Adverts banned by UK watchdog. BBC News. Retrieved February 14, 2023, from https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63309878