Hi everyone,

I would like to talk about a new term that I just learned called “Greenwashing“. The definition of “Greenwashing” is “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Whether it is to increase profits or gain political support, greenwashing may be used to manipulate popular opinion to support otherwise questionable aims.”

There is a huge trend taking place in the world right now, many consumers are favoring companies that have “Green initiatives” and/or are environmentally friendly. Thus new trend has led to many companies, both big and small, to start green initiatives and work towards being a more environmentally friendly company. However, there are no fixed guidelines or laws to define a company as “Green” and there is no regulation body that ensures and enforces a company’s attempt to become green. So we end up with a big problem of many companies claiming that they are “green” when in actual fact, they are not.

“Public utilities spent 300 million dollars advertising themselves as clean green companies. This was eight times more than the money they spent on pollution reduction research.” It’s intriguing to find that companies are spending tons of money on advertising to prove to the public and media on how “environmentally friendly” they are instead of using the funds to actually reduce pollution and other initiatives. I find that in terms of marketing in the 21st century, it has become “what people think you do” instead of “what you do” in order to be successful in your marketing campaigns.

I found this short clip on Greenwashing.

Going forward, Companies will continue to push themselves harder and market themselves as “Green” to gain reputation and increase their bottom line. I think that it is time for governments to step in and regulate this segment of the market, to ensure that companies are doing as they say and that their “Green initiatives” really actually do help the environment instead of harming it. This website is one of the first in the world that measures how “green” a company’s “green initiative” is.

(Source)