At present, concern for the environment continues to grow and more and more people support companies that have a real commitment to caring for and protecting the environment. When companies spend more time and money marketing their products or brand as “green” rather than doing the hard work to ensure it is sustainable, this is called “greenwashing.“
What is greenwashing?
It is likely that you have heard of “laundering” at least once in the business world. This term is known as the fact of hiding scandalous information through a biased presentation of the facts.
. Greenwashing occurs when a company or organization spends more time and money promoting itself as environmentally friendly than minimizing its environmental impact. This is a deceptive publicity stunt intended to confuse consumers who prefer to buy goods and services from environmentally friendly brands.
How does greenwashing harm the company’s reputation?
In the last 20 years greenwashing has changed, but it certainly continues to exist. As the world increasingly adopts green practices, companies are facing a large number of lawsuits for misleading environmental claims.
In almost all cases, greenwashing negatively affects the reputation of companies, which can result in decreased sales.
Las empresas que buscan aumentar sus beneficios demostrando su sostenibilidad pueden exagerar accidentalmente su compromiso medioambiental. By doing so, they may harm your business by appearing dishonest to the public.
Fear of being accused of greenwashing can prevent companies from promoting sustainable practices. Although green behavior is still desirable without media attention, advocacy can help spread awareness of environmental issues.
| A culture of greenwashing can hinder legitimate green initiatives. |
How to avoid greenwashing?
Our transition to a greener, smarter, and fairer global economy can start with these five basic brand marketing tactics to avoid:
- Lame Language: Words or terms with no clear meaning (for example, “green”)
- Irrelevant claims: Emphasizing a small green attribute when everything else is anti-green
- No Evidence: A statement that could be correct but has no evidence.
- False information: totally fabricated statements or data
- Unjustified Images: Images that give a green impression without justification.
Opportunities for companies that want to be sustainable
We can all be change agents when considering and designing sustainable outcomes in the world around us that affect social, economic and environmental well-being.
When we consider sustainability as a practice that helps us create a future in which we want to live, we generate optimism and can provide solutions to the different realities we face.
In DoGood we are committed to improving the world through small actions in an innovative, measurable and fun way.
In addition, we help you activate SDGs, improve your ESG metrics and Non-Financial Information Reports through your teams.
If you want to know more about how we work to create a positive social and environmental impact, click here.
