Volkswagen make clean diesel engines. Like really clean diesel. Or so they claimed. Their Clean Diesel technology was a key selling feature of some of their most popular vehicles. Then in 2015, it all fell apart when the US Environmental Protection Agency found that real world NOx emissions from their vehicles were forty times higher than in laboratory tests. To make it worse, this was not an accident. Volkswagen had programmed their engine management system to identify when a vehicle was going through an emissions test and modify engine performance to reduce emissions during the testing cycle. This was not only misleading, it was illegal. The deception affected 11 million cars worldwide and became known as the Dieselgate scandal, probably the best known example of corporate greenwashing.
Hi Tom, great article. Greenwashing is an extremely sticky subject. I subscribe to the idea that (apart from a few examples, many in the fast fashion sector), companies are not setting out to deceive when it comes to their green credentials.
That said, I also believe that people do not have a good enough understanding of the world of sustainability. Whilst intentions are nearly always good, they will often only talk about the small things they are changing without addressing the big (scary) things - an example would be an airline switching to re-useable cups and a paperless office. Good, but what about all those fuel emissions?
Another problem is not considering everything to the end of its life. A good example would be changing the packaging of something to 'compostable'. More often than not, this packaging is only compostable in industrial composters which is useless to most households and will have to go into landfill.
What I'm trying to say is that intentions are often very good, but execution can be bad. Going back to your three questions, I think the last one is the most important: can they demonstrate there is a properly thought out, business-wide, sustainability programme?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Heather. Yes I think a large amount of what we see as greenwashing is actually good intentions that didn't quite hot the mark, often due to a lack of knowledge or a lack of understanding the wider context. Having a company wide, joined up sustainability programme can help to reduce this if its well organised.
Great points. As I redesign my website to become as sustainable as possible, I plan to document this journey on the site and in a "Sustainability Statement". But I will be clear that this is part of a journey, that it is not perfect but that it is part of the philosophy that I preach of "every little bit counts." Honesty and transparency are not flaws but are in fact quite the opposite. By showing you are evolving, learning and yes, making mistakes, you convey that you are in fact human. That I think is more encouraging for others thinking of implementing sustainability changes than insisting you are "sustainable" with no context, evidence or genuine commitment.
Hi Tom, great article. Greenwashing is an extremely sticky subject. I subscribe to the idea that (apart from a few examples, many in the fast fashion sector), companies are not setting out to deceive when it comes to their green credentials.
That said, I also believe that people do not have a good enough understanding of the world of sustainability. Whilst intentions are nearly always good, they will often only talk about the small things they are changing without addressing the big (scary) things - an example would be an airline switching to re-useable cups and a paperless office. Good, but what about all those fuel emissions?
Another problem is not considering everything to the end of its life. A good example would be changing the packaging of something to 'compostable'. More often than not, this packaging is only compostable in industrial composters which is useless to most households and will have to go into landfill.
What I'm trying to say is that intentions are often very good, but execution can be bad. Going back to your three questions, I think the last one is the most important: can they demonstrate there is a properly thought out, business-wide, sustainability programme?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Heather. Yes I think a large amount of what we see as greenwashing is actually good intentions that didn't quite hot the mark, often due to a lack of knowledge or a lack of understanding the wider context. Having a company wide, joined up sustainability programme can help to reduce this if its well organised.
Great points. As I redesign my website to become as sustainable as possible, I plan to document this journey on the site and in a "Sustainability Statement". But I will be clear that this is part of a journey, that it is not perfect but that it is part of the philosophy that I preach of "every little bit counts." Honesty and transparency are not flaws but are in fact quite the opposite. By showing you are evolving, learning and yes, making mistakes, you convey that you are in fact human. That I think is more encouraging for others thinking of implementing sustainability changes than insisting you are "sustainable" with no context, evidence or genuine commitment.
That sounds great. I really like the idea of a very honest sustainability statement on a website!