I recently read an article in BC living which was talking about companies that had partaken in greenwashing in the past few years. These big name companies ranged from Coca-Cola to Frito Lay to Apple. Instead of these companies actually becoming more sustainable, which would help their company become more efficient, save money and become better for the world, they decided to just create the illusion of being green. This saddens me and makes me lose a little bit of hope in humanity. Instead of spending money on marketing their supposedly green ways, they could have put this money towards actually making their company more sustainable and making this world a slightly better place. They could have also helped their company as a whole more respectable.
The crazy part is that this isn’t only happening in companies but it is happening in countries too! And you might think it is only happening in countries that aren’t as aware or developed but you would be wrong. It is happening right here in Canada. The government has cut down programs that are involved with climate research and other environmental programs. And although the government has said they have set a plan that will cut down tar sands emissions this plan won’t be implemented for at least ten years, which is just putting off the problem.
These companies and countries are the leaders in their industries and the world and if they can’t seem to take a stand and become more sustainable it makes me wonder if anyone will. It is obvious that these companies and countries are just there to make money, but as we talked about it class, there needs to be a world there to make money from! Do they not care about this because they just want to be the most profitable at the moment? Do they think these choices will not effect their generation? Because if they answer is yes to these questions they are sadly mistaken. I wonder what it will take to make them realize this. Hopefully it doesn’t come to the end of the world to make them regret their decisions.
Check out the links below for the articles to see which companies and countries have been greenwashing. Also check out the last link to learn how to spot a company who isn’t actually sustainable but is just greenwashing.
http://www.bcliving.ca/home/is-2010-the-year-of-corporate-greenwashing