Reaction Paper : Greenwashing

Many firms are learning that being environmentally friendly and sustainable has numerous benefits. (O.C Ferrell, Fraedrich, Ferrell, 2015). This could enable them to increase goodwill from various stakeholders and also save money in the long term. This will mean that they are being more efficient and less wasteful of resources, which will enable them to be more competitive by satisfying stakeholders. The CEO of

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

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

Designing and using sustainable products is the important topic which all human should seriously consider about. The technological development in recent decades significantly improved the average standard of living world widely while that destroyed natural environments on the earth. The speaker John P. O’Grady in TED Talk pointed out that how unsustainable products have terribly contributed to the devastation of the environment. For instance, Mr. O’Grady showed the audience that the study of marine pollution and metaphorically expressed the situation as the toilet which has not been flushed for a long time. Besides that, there are many other problems causing negative impacts. These environmental destructions harm not only nature but also the

Companies today are heavily influenced by the demands of customers and stakeholders. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) refers to the social and environmental responsibility policies and practices developed by an organization to increase its positive influence and reduce its negative activity towards society (Parks, 2008). The business approach and corporate philosophy of an organization is easily altered due to economic pressures, technological improvement and stakeholder needs and demands. "Going green" or being eco-friendly is one such demand. Environmental and sustainability concerns originate most often from governments, consumer activists, and the general public (Schlosser, 2008). Thus, organizations must implement sustainability into daily practices. In addition, sustainability alters the nature of competition and drives companies to think differently about products, processes, and technologies (Parks, 2008).

The grave, yet subtle, danger that large corporations put the world in is one that not many companies are committed to fixing. Large companies use substantial amounts of water, energy, fossil fuels, etc. and have almost depleted important resources. The Target Corporation has worked tirelessly to improve their environmental standings and therefore, increase the overall well-being of the world. Target, the second-largest discount retailer in the United States, with Walmart being the largest, has set goals year after year to change their consumption habits and increase their environmental sustainability. While Target has many environmentally friendly products and practices, the company has also committed some infractions, making many skeptical

In conversations globally the environment is a hot topic. Issues with the ozone layer, depleting natural resources, and health risks associated with emissions and changes in climate coupled with its resulting natural disasters; have pushed conservation issues into the spotlight. The environmental issues presented today are not the result of one country, one type, or one-industry actions but a communal failure of a mixture of several. With that said many countries and industries are going through policy changes to combat environmental issues that will hopefully benefit the environment, the consumer, and industries.

Since the mid 1990s consumers had become more concerned about environmental issues (Strong, 1996). He defines a green consumer as someone who rejects products that are harmful to him/her self or others around him, its manufacturing process damage the environment, consume a large amount of energy, involves unnecessary waste, and use material originated from threatened animal. According to Uusitalo and Oksanen (2004), this consumption concept is known as ethical consumerism. They suggest that ethical consumerism includes concerns about unethical and unfair global trades, like child labor, low paid labor, disrespect of human rights, animal testing, and environmental damage. These concerns had led the origin of sustainable marketing, which means that enterprises build and maintain sustainable relationship with consumers, social environment, and natural environment (Lee, 2008). Lee (2008), predicts two consequences of these increasing sustainable concerns in the near future. First, he says that concepts of green products or going green will be the mainstream. Second, Companies from developing countries will develop international green campaigns to increase their sales, expand their markets, and establish positive image trough green marketing.

* Take advantage of the “green” trend that we are living nowadays and sell the company’s services as environmentally friendly and highlighting its social responsibility.

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

People are likely to deny all the information, which they do not want to hear and to believe that it can concern anybody else but not him or her directly. The problem of climate change is not the issue that can affect the humanity in one moment in the same way smoking does not kill the smoker from the first day of addiction. However, the fact of the existence of the phenomenon remains undeniable, and every human makes his or her contribution to the development of the issue, which can be both adverse and beneficial. Although it is reasonably believed that climate change is affected by the use of cars, emissions from factories and the growing amount of garbage, there are hidden factors that encourage pollution and hurt the planet, including people’s growing passion for traveling, and even their diets on a par with the way of life.

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

Within New Zealand there are various forms of legal greenwashing, the example provided by the participant being the BNZ bank investing in a Kiwi recovery program, while at the same time investing in oil exploration. Ambiguous claims by advertising are also legal and terms that imply nature, such as those which leave the consumer with the perception that it is good for the world only it is the opposite. The only instance where it is illegal is when the product implicitly claims to do something it does not. To explain this concept an example using theoretical soap was provided by the research participant, “‘using this soap is good for the environment’ is illegal whereas ‘using this soap is better for the environment’ is not; in light of what is the soap better than, using acid?” Currently the participant was unaware of any schemes in New Zealand that would allow governments and regulatory sectors to serve the public and advise them on green purchasing in a way that is fair to commercial interests. However, regarding green labels, credibility can be judged by looking at the packaging; credentials are typically referred to on packaging and on the company’s website. This lack of recognized green labels provides an opportunity for established brands, for instance Greenpeace to step in and provide more. Unfortunately, within New Zealand the participant did believe this would occur under any foreseeable government, stating that “implementing something like this would require society

Green technology is becoming a corporate responsibility as more people realize how their electronic products impact the environment. The average household owns 24 consumer electronic products, according to ENERGY STAR, which is a program that was created by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to identify the best ways to conserve energy. Electronic products are made with resources and materials such as metals, plastics, and glass, which all require energy to mine and manufacture, according to the EPA. Despite this, Earth’s natural resources can actively be restored if consumers and architects of technology work together.