Are You Being Green Washed Analysis

Consumerism often causes people to identify with a product or brand on a personal level. Certain products have come to represent different levels of society, with swankier products like muscle cars indicating high class and such products as generic “store brand” shampoo indicating low class. People feel that they have relationships with their favorite brands and products and define themselves by what they buy and own. The mass production of cheap products uses precious fossil fuels at an alarming rate. This has an obvious negative impact on the environment.

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

In this case BP PLC is another multi-national name brand corporation that operates under three different segments: “Exploration and Production; Refining and Marketing; and Gas, Power, and Renewables” (Jennings, 2012, 411), They used “green” and “socially responsible” in its marketing

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 the international business arena, particularly as a result of globalization, multinational corporations are beginning to understand that being "green" or ecologically minded, is not simply for environmentalists. By supporting sustainability, many organizations hope not only to reduce their carbon footprint but also to attract younger people who prefer to work for environmentally and socially responsible organizations. This spills off into personal decisions as well, but includes a different philosophical mindset one of holism and treating the planet as one organism. The advantages of "going green" are both tangible and intangible: lower operating costs, less energy use, increased property value, and a positive, proactive, public image. Historically, there has been a battle from the so called "environmentalist cadre" who wanted slow or no growth in favor of the environment and the "capitalist right" who believed in a strong economy and the aggressive use of resources. In the contemporary environment, however, there is no doubt that both a template for robust economic growth can merge with a cleaner environment. Unfortunately, in many ways, sustainability in design and output is no longer something that would be "nice to implement," but because of the loss of biodiversity, over-use of the environment, and continuing overconsumption, is almost a necessity for the 21st century.

Over the last two decades, the world's consumption habits have changed fundamentally with regard to environmental and health issues and people are increasingly willing to act on those concerns (Martinez-Carrasco et al., 2004; Smith and Marsden, 2004). Numerous studies indicate that there is a remarkable growth in consumers who are concerned with the environmental impact of their purchase decisions (paragraph problem (Tallontire, Rentsendorj & Blowfield 2001).

Quote A and Quote B show a connection between consumer’s behavior and the environmental changes. Thus, the unsustainable patterns of natural resources production and consumption are having social and environmental impacts in America. The urbanization and industrialization requires huge amount of resources for sustainability and development. Coal mining, coal processing, and iron and steel industries, and now natural gas particularly have far-reaching consequences for ecosystems due to the large amount of greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, wasted product from these industry contaminated the land, air, and water while the act of mining destroy the land structure as well as the ecosystem. Furthermore, these acts create social problem and

In a world focused on climate change and sustainable development, many people have become more interested in the environmentally-related behavior of corporations and have increased their desire for “green” products. In response to this growing demand, numerous corporations have shifted to becoming more sustainable and are making green marketing claims. While some of these companies are actually carrying out robust sustainability practices, many companies’ practices do not match up to the image they convey to the public and are guilty of greenwashing. In fact, a study conducted by TerraChoice (2010) found that in 2010, over 95 percent of “greener” products were found to be greenwashed (6). The term greenwashing stems from whitewashing, and is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as "disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image."

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

Most Americans see the importance of protecting the environment; therefore, we are attracted to any company which leads us to believe it will help the environment with the help of our business. This is where you have to evaluate whether or not they want to appear green, or whether they are green. Do they just want your money, or do they really care about the environment? Companies can do the smallest thing, such as eliminate a small portion of waste from their product of facility, use the word "nature" in their advertising, or compare their product to others, and swear they are the newest environmental protection agency. Customers are now attracted, therefore spending money, and buying into a "painted green" company. Take, for instance, Toyota. Toyota advertises in People Weekly (Toyota Automobile Company), "we are spending billions to reduce the impact our vehicles will have on the environment. We are building a greener Toyota." Are they really spending billions? Is the product now built greener, or do they have greener advertisements? Have you driven a

Many studies have shown that a large extent of environmental degradation is in fact related to the consumers (Heiskanen and Pantzar, 1997). Consumption has become the predominant and essential phenomena of our lives (Ratneshwar et al., 2000). In order to reduce the negative impacts humans place on the environment, the issue of sustainability has been prioritized since the 1992 World Summit in Rio. Consume sustainably and having a sustainable lifestyle is the fundamental part to favor the

The society we live in today, has made efforts to make the world a more eco-friendly environment. For the most part, different industries have made a push to better the ecosystem. The oil industry developed a “clean” fuel refinery, a design to eliminate or minimize solid waste. The automotive industry has promoted cars that are fueled by power instead of gas, to decrease pollution, and the manufacturing industry has gone green by developing new equipment that uses less energy. It is almost as if “going green” has become “trendy”. Our society made it clear to corporate America that living in a more environmentally sound world was important to them. In 2014 it was noted that an estimated 17 to 20% of water contamination came from areas of the fashion industry, and that the fashion industry, is the 2nd most polluting industry in the world. Who would have thought that the clothes we wear had such a colossal impact on the environment that surrounds us? However, just like the oil, automotive and manufacturing industry, the apparel industry is continuing to make progress in creating “greener” fashion.

According to the green consciousness, the current consumer presents a pyramid structure, namely the consumer ignoring of green occupy the majority, mild green consumer place in the middle, the depth green consumer occupy minority. 2.2 From the aspect of enterprises Many enterprises are not cognizant of the opportunity and the threat brought by the new market in which green need and green marketing is very popular, which causes the green marketing only to be able at a lower level. It is expressed in the following: (1) Partial enterprises ignore the environmental protection and disregard the social responsibility. (2) About the understanding of the green breadth, many enterprises thought narrowly the green marketing only is food, the electric appliance, the building material and so on. (3) About the understanding of the green depth, the enterprise sticks to the product stage, that is, the green value is just to pursue the profit which the green product brings. 2.3 From the aspect of environmental protection NGO Environmental protection NGO overseas is the starting strength for green marketing development. It directly exerts

The entire human population, the young, the old, the rich, the poor, the governed, and the governors, stand at a very dangerous precipice. That precipice is the degradation of the natural environment: the cutting down of the rainforests, the pollution of the air and water, climate change the overconsumption of resources and energy that are not renewable, the list goes on. Some have surmised that corporations and the invisible forces of the market will create an economic atmosphere conducive to solving these problems through traditional market forces and corporate objectives. It is true that much progress has been made by corporations to be more “green,” but the unfortunate fact is that

The above figure 2, deciphers how a brand can earn heavily by harmonising its environmental, economic, and social performances. For example, nowadays customers are quite health conscious and that is why it is important to roll out green products. As a result, it will help to cater the healthy choices of a brand’s customers.