A World Focused On Climate Change And Sustainable Development

assuage any guilt they might feel about consuming mass quantities of unnecessary, disposable goods by dutifully tossing these items into their recycling bins and hauling them out to the curb each week”. (Westervelt, Amy. "Can Recycling Be Bad for the Environment?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 5 Dec. 2015). So why is the reason that companies are starting to “Go Green”? Its clearly obvious that the change in America from an industrial country to a environmental country has taught big business how to market environmentalism in mass quantities of their product. The strategy of the consumption-environment mindset are increasing rapidly. If this trend of buying without thinking does not slow down, with problems like not shifting priority from consumption to being environmentally aware, things will certainly worsen. On the topic of green marketing, people often see that green marketing refers to the advertising of objects or products with environmental characteristics to them (Like the Nestle bottle, for example). Terms like “Environmentally Friendly”, “Refillable”, and “Recyclable”, are some of the things people associate with green marketing. In reality

Corporate reconstruction of green – in the 1990’s we saw the reconstruction of the term “green” by corporations as they flooded the airwaves

The rise of green products and the want of consumers to become more environmentally friendly has been increasing. In 10 Green Marketing Milestones, the reading mentioned how the “rise of the Toyota Prius: It may not have saved the world, but at 1 million cumulative vehicle sales the Prius became the predominant fuel-efficient hybrid vehicle” (Neff 2). This is an example of how companies are actually wanting to go green in order to make more profit and rise above their competitors. Going off the Prius example, it was also mentioned how Hummer cars, which use an excess amount of fuel, sales have plummeted. This was because this model no longer appealed to the consumers and General Motor’s had to discontinue the model and even went bankrupt. This sale tactic works and is so successful because the consumer’s mindset have evolved to seek things that are better for the environment. Many would prefer Toyota over General Motor because of their company’s reputation with being green. Although this might not work for all companies, but for some, they have become more successful than their competitors by going green and so, convincing more and more to

Although not all companies are successful at truly embodying what it means to be green, even companies that have been synonymous for contributing pollutants and greenhouse gasses spend millions trying to convince stakeholders that they do. It’s often these last two dimensions of CSR—social and environmental, that either embroil a corporation in controversy or allow it to serve as an exemplar in good ethical business practices.

Likewise, the green energy hoax could be due to companies wanting to take advantage of consumers by informing them of products that will help promote change to the environment when in actuality their claims are not living up to the product offered is capable of doing. However, many want to imply that their products serve a purpose to help the environment when they are actually hurting consumers pockets and causing more anxiety with the products that should be ensuring safety, benefit, and

The modern advertisements for the companies, that pollutes the ecosystem, are created to greenwash the public images for the organization. Most of the big manufactures spends much bigger amount of money and time on its commercials to pretend to be clean or green other than actually developing the business to minimize the environmental imapct. In 2010, one of the popular gasoline company Chevron launched a campaign: 'We Agree," that represents that Chevron agrees and cares about the pollutions around the world. One of the images, that Chevron used, states "Oil Comapnies Should Fix The Problems They Create" with a picture of nature filled with the sludge from the gas companies and there is "We Agree" printed under the statement. This advertising angered some audience because many people believed that the Chevron was only pretending to care and the people changed the slogan to "Oil Comapnies Stop Pretending They Care," and made a "Chevwrong" nickname. For another example, there are many bottled water companies that produce a large amount of the plastic bottles.

It is now popular to be environmentally conscious in American society. It is completely acknowledged by the populace that oil will, indeed, run out within a lifetime, leaving a demand for a different kind of energy source. Hybrid cars, such as the Prius are now mainstream, recycling is day-to-day, finding organic fruits, vegetables, and meat is as easy as walking to the nearest grocery store, and using plastic bags has been deemed unacceptable. Global warming, while debated and questioned by conservative policymakers has generally been accepted as fact by the population. With any movement, fad, or great change, a great number of people –including corporate media -- want to jump on board the Green Revolution. This is a

We’ve all heard about whitewashing: trying to cover something up that is unsavoury or unwanted, and hoping that no one sees through the white paint. It’s a metaphor meaning to gloss over or cover up vices. It’s leaving out an important detail in a story, or distracting people from mistakes that have been made. Greenwashing, is cleverly derived from “whitewashing” to describe a more modern concept: pretending to be more environmentally friendly than you actually are – hence the “green”.

One of the most successful techniques that we can still witness today is “greenwashing.” Greenwashing uses marketing strategies with green oriented projects that promote reduction of energy or pollution allowing the consumer to believe they are doing good to the environment. “In actuality, the company or group may be operating in damaging ways or may simply be unwilling to make a meaningful commitment to green initiatives.” (Investopedia.) BP logo being a green and yellow flower appears to be environmentally friendly and responsible yet, when the corporation first opened the logo was a dark red color eventually making its way to becoming green in 1947. Additionally, in 2000 they renamed themselves from British Petroleum to Beyond Petroleum changing the way consumers view them on environmental responsibilities and future of fossil fuel. “In 2002 CorpWatch and Friends of the Earth awarded BP the ‘Best Greenwash Award’ at the Greenwash Academy Award Programs” showcasing them as more of a marketing strategy then doing good for the world. At the end of the day, BP is beyond concerned with their profit margins then corporate social responsibility. BP has its eyes set on a new location for oil drilling in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. “The company stands to make handsome profits if it is allowed to drill on the Arctic

The issue of global climate change is one of the most popular debates in modern day society. For decades, scientists have been battling to find the source of our global climate change. This matter brings to us whether or not humans are accelerating the process of global climate change. Scientists have provided solid evidence of global climate change by humans in multiple studies, but others believe that climate change is caused solely by nature and the naturalness of the Earth’s cycle. According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration, also known as NASA, over 97% of climate scientists agree that global warming is mostly likely caused by human activities. In our society today, there is a lot of misconception of the definition of weather and climate. As these two terms are often associated with each other, they are not the same. Mark Twain simply summed up the definition for us: “Climate is what you expect; weather is what you get”. According to Andrew Dessler, a science politician, climate is the behavior of the environment throughout a long period of time, usually a decade or so, whereas weather refers to the actual temperature of the atmosphere at a particular period of time. “Climate change”, however, is “any systematic change in the long-term statistics of climate elements (such as temperature, pressure, or winds) sustained over several decades or longer” (Dessler). Our society often forgets that our current projects are not always necessarily benefiting us,

The economy today runs on an antiquated ritual of exploiting, plundering, devastation, and manipulation of land for material wealth, profiting the wealthy and condemning the poor. This mindset is no more sophisticated than feudalism, a system so bad it had to be outlawed along with witchcraft. The idea that exploitation of land is justified has brought plastics to the ocean and leveled rainforests. Large corporations have grown larger by manufacturing and production, depleting the planet’s resources in the process. Now, companies must make a combined effort to put the environment first, before profit. Because of their harmful practices, consumers have the right to know where products come from, how they’re made, and the impact on the environment. Furthermore, it is the responsibility of the large corporations to change their harmful practices, to make strides towards ending climate change and use clean, sustainable methods.

In this day and age companies have mastered the technique of misleading customers by fabricating false claims about a green product or service that they swear to provide. This insincere display of information is called ‘Greenwashing’, a spin-off of ‘Whitewashing’. Greenwashing could be said to be a global phenomenon and it’s commonly seen in advertisements, on products packing, websites, emails, speeches, and videos (just to name a few). Greenwashing is a thought out process, a planned and typically well designed campaign. There is a wide range of reasons why companies are eager to partake in greenwashing; divert attention for regulatory change, to persuade critics or consumers, expand the company's

“In 2002, Gray already stated that the real danger we face today is that there is lots of talk about something which nobody is doing, can do or wants to do in sustainability reporting. There is an awful lot of talk and very little action. Don 't believe what you read, and social and environmental accountability will remain a "nice idea" until there is substantive legislation requiring it of all large organizations.”(Gray,2002) Many companies really do follow sustainable practices. However, some make such claims without any facts to back them up. For example, Green-washing. “Greenwashing Index defines as when a company or organization spends more time and money claiming to be 'green ' through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush."(Burg,2013) These companies actually make limited contribution to developing sustainability. Such as Coca-Cola, “according to the consumer report, they think Coca-Cola accusing Coca-Cola of “green-washing”, because their new Plant Bottle Marketing overstated environmental benefits. There had no proof that these product offers any positive effect in regards to reducing CO2 emissions.”(Zara,2013) Except Gray, some other professors had the

The concept of going green has been a growing trend in recent years across all types of industries. Some have argued that it’s simply a fad that can be attributed to the popularity of global awareness amongst celebrities, but in reality it is more than that. It is redefining the way the business world works. As more companies expand on an international level, more stress is put on the surrounding environment to accommodate those expansions. While the bottom-line still is the primary goal of companies, they must now react to the new values of their consumers, which include protecting the community that they are a part of. This results in companies like Patagonia, an outdoor clothing company based in Ventura, CA, Bamboo Sushi, a sushi restaurant in Portland, Oregon, and Ben and Jerry’s, the famous ice cream brand coming out of Vermont, focusing on different bottom-lines but similar socio-economic goals. These companies aren’t in the same industry, but those socio-economic goals like high levels of sustainability are being shared across lines. Patagonia, Bamboo Sushi, and Ben and Jerry’s are all Benefit Corporations. Emerging from the non-profit, B-Lab, Benefit Corporations (B Corporations) are corporations focused on “using the power of business to solve social and environmental problems” that our society is starting to face (What are B-Corps?, 2014).

One major problem as far as companies using green marketing and why it isn’t working is that the relatively vague definition of green marketing leaves a lot of room for loopholes. Green marketing, by simply being defined as “the marketing of products that are assumed to be environmentally safe,” allows companies to take advantage of this idea even if their products are not the best example of green ones (McClendon 1). Most companies also don’t practice what they preach in such