The Lowdown on Greenwashing
Does being hoodwinked or lied to make you angry? It certainly makes me angry. As an entrepreneur behind a genuine eco challenger brand and as a consumer myself, I find greenwashing both harmful and frustrating. To become a more evolved and sustainable shopper, you need to know all about this, because it's only through knowledge that you can look for the signs and make the right choices. I'm Emma Heathcote-James, founder of the multi-award-winning certified B Corporation 'Little Soap Company', which created the challenger brand 'Eco Warrior'. In this episode, I'm going to give you the lowdown on greenwashing by exploring what it is, why it's harmful, and how to see through it. So first of all, what exactly is greenwashing? Greenwashing describes misleading claims by businesses which lead the consumer to believe something's green when it's not. We've all seen and experienced it. But you may not have realised it, because it's a very clever and cynical marketing tactic. According to government sources, a global sweep found 40% of firms' green claims could be misleading. Greenwashing practice varies widely. Sometimes it's implied a product's green through the design and the branding. It's a clever way of tricking your brain. After all, a picture says 1000 words. So if you pick up a product that's packaged in green with images depicting nature, it's very likely you'll think it's environmentally friendly, natural or healthy. A lot of greenwashing comes down to the use of misleading and confusing jargon, where the brand just hopes the consumer will take the information at face value, feel good for buying it and not delve any deeper. Again, this is tricking you and relying on your good nature. At its worst, greenwashing can actually involve lying and making false claims, which is about as unethical as you can get. I recently saw a product which had brown packaging, saying I'm a paper bottle, but you open the brown packaging and inside was a plastic bottle. It's totally laughable in one sense. But when you are hoodwinking customers into buying something, it really is no laughing matter. Hopefully, this practice will be on its way out due to new legislation, but more about that later. Sometimes businesses overrate one green property of a product while hiding far worse aspect of the environment, such as harmful manufacturing processes, or poor treatment of communities and employees. This is the kind of stuff you'll only find out if you're researching a business or reading a lot of reviews. But of course, that takes time. And have you ever ordered an environmentally friendly product only to find it covered in swathes of plastic packaging? This is often a challenge for companies who are trying to do the right thing, but may struggle with the costs of alternative packaging, or find their supply chain simply puts it out of their control. I do have some sympathy for these situations. However, with some effort and investment and working more closely with supply chain, improvement really is possible. An industry with a particularly bad rap for greenwashing is the fashion industry. High Street Fashion relies on a high turnover. But the concept of fast fashion is now fast going out of fashion. So to react to this many fashion houses and brands have tried to imply their clothes are sustainable and a good ethical, environmentally-friendly choice. However, this practice has come under considerable scrutiny and, of course, criticism. A report by the Changing Markets Foundation revealed 60% of the environmental claims on High Street fashion brands' websites could be classed as unsubstantiated and misleading. And as reported by sustainable media brand Ed. Across the brand's 39% of products assessed made sustainability-related claims such as recycled, eco, low impact or sustainable, when the foundation assessed whether these claims stood up against the Competition and Market Authority's new guidelines on avoiding greenwashing 59% did not. This is a pretty poor show for an industry which often targets their messaging at the young, an audience who have been shown to really care about the environment. But thankfully an audience who we know research companies prolifically; something we all need to learn from. You may be wondering, why is greenwashing such a big deal? We know the advertising used by many brands needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. If most of the perfume adverts were to be believed we would all be irresistible and living glamorous lives after just one spray. But when it comes to false claims about the green properties or products, it really is a serious problem. Because it's our whole planet that's at stake. We're all aware of the climate crisis and the enormous issues caused by pollutants, plastic, landfill issues and our own health and well being. Every time a consumer is tricked into buying products pretending to be green when it's not, it puts back progress in protecting the planet. And that's because if all of the information on products was correct, consumers may make better, more environmentally positive choices. And crucially, it means that genuinely green brands simply can't compete, which is unfair. Eco challenger brands face higher costs due to the research they carry out, innovation they invest in, better quality ingredients they use and high standards of ethical practice that they commit to in running their businesses. If a competitive product can just claim to be green, and offer what appears to be a similar product at a fraction of the price, or even worse, at the same high price, it will drive the authentic green brands out of business. And to me, it's just not acceptable. If we accept greenwashing is an unfortunate fact of life. How do we as consumers navigate our way through it? As this is something I'm so passionate about, I want to help you sort the green from the greenwash, I want you to be able to make buying choices and support brands who help not harm the environment. In an ideal world, it wouldn't come down to this, to you having to analyse information, assess claims and research brands. But if you get used to looking out for certain things, becoming a savvy green shopper will be a lot easier than you think. So the first thing we all need to do is to stop taking terminology used on products at face value. The reality is terms like green, environmentally friendly and eco friendly are quite vague, biodegradable, compostable, and degradable, natural, organic, can be confusing and misleading. For example, some products may be biodegradable, but only under certain complex commercial conditions. Some products might be compostable, but not in a standard home compost bin. Degradable sounds great, but it's not always, as tiny pieces of plastic and microplastics are no less harmful to the environment than larger ones. Instead of relying on words, check out labelling and certification. Look out for 'B Corporation'. This is an accreditation for brands who put the planet before profit. Look out for the recycle logo, the Soil Association and organic farmers and growers, COSMOS and Eco Cert. FSC which means accredited following inspection for using wood from a well-managed forest according to social, economic and environmental standards, and there are loads of others. These include Fairtrade, the Rainforest Alliance, Defra eco-label, energy saving and carbon reduction. It's also important to check products carry official logos, like the Vegan Society, RSPO sustainable palm oil and Leaping Bunny cruelty free. Homemade logos on packaging means companies aren't actually audited or have any accountability. If you've got time, it's really worth doing a bit of online research before you buy. Often a quick check of a business's reviews can bring up issues with products or their reputation on the environment. The app Giki now known as the 'Impact Score' can help you do this. It lists the ethical, sustainable or health credentials of more than 280,000 household products from food and drink, to cosmetics with badges assigned to how they rank, you can check an item's rating with a simple scan of the product's barcode. So for a bit of good news, there may be a light at the end of the greenwashing tunnel. A government statement made on the 20th of September 2021 should give greenwashing the red light. The new green claims code will be managed by the Competition and Markets Authority, who will investigate misleading claims and take action against offenders. The good thing about this is it's not just designed to punish firms making false claims, but to help them get it right and understand what genuinely green means. After all, there will be some brands whose heart's in the right place, but they simply lack the understanding of all the regulation and good practice. What does remain to be seen is how effective this code will be at weeding out the clever marketing gimmicks and taking meaningful action in stopping it. Hopefully, greenwashing practice is on its way out, so I'll cross my fingers. But I probably won't just hold my breath just yet. In the meantime, it's down to us, the shoppers to find our way through it all. And it's down to genuinely eco-friendly and ethical brands like us to stand up and continue to lead the way. So as we draw to an end, let's quickly recap. In this podcast, we covered the main issues surrounding greenwashing. You learned about what greenwashing is, why it's so harmful, and how to avoid it through actions like checking labels for valid claims, authentic certification and doing proper research. Hopefully, this has got you one step closer to understanding what you buy and shopping like a true eco warrior with your eyes wide open. If you want to do a deeper dive into topics touched on in this podcast, and for more articles on the green claim code and other related topics, head over to our blog at littlesoapcompany.co.uk. You can also follow me Emma Heathcote-James, Little Soap Company and Eco Warrior Soap on Instagram. And you can listen to our other podcasts, including hearing the Little Soap Company journey, the plastic crisis and why the future of shopping needs to be circular, which are also available where you found this one and on iTunes, Spotify and Google podcasts.
