How To Avoid Greenwashing and False Advertising

Graphic of a green Earth with green arrows flowing around it. Image by annca from Pixabay
Image by annca from Pixabay

What is Greenwashing?

In short, greenwashing is false advertising. Greenwashing is advertising or promotions in which green marketing is deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization’s products, aims, and policies are environmentally friendly when they are not.

You can avoid buying products under false pretenses and misleading claims. The easiest rule, of course, is that if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.

“Companies often use greenwashing in their marketing to make consumers feel good by making them think less about where their products come from and how the products are disposed of.” -Jennie Romer1

I don’t need to reinvent the wheel on greenwashing because there are already so many well-written articles and videos out there. I’ve compiled a list here and hope you find them helpful.

Here are just a few specific examples of Greenwashing:

 

Coca-Cola plantbottle advertisement

Earth friendly graphic
Image by Clker-Free-Vector-Images

Footnote:

  1. Book, Can I Recycle This?: A Guide to Better Recycling and How to Reduce Single-Use Plastics, by Jennie Romer, Penguin, New York, 2021.