Taking a Look at Green Washing

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

The corporate deconstruction of green – green crimes are the result of behaviours displayed by groups or a single individual. Corporations play an integral role in the term green because of the influence they have on various environmental movement groups through donations, funding and political strongholds.

-Initiate and implement the ‘Go Green’ project to promote the sustainability features of our products to customers

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.

The following report attempts to illustrate the differences between going green and greenwashing and how that affects corporate social responsibility within the City of Vancouver as an organization. Fifteen scholarly journal articles have been used to further support this discussion and provide insight into the world of greenwashing and it’s linkages to corporate social responsibility. This paper will attempt to confirm that the City of Vancouver’s efforts of going green feed into their corporate social responsibility and in fact prove that this municipal organization is working towards its green goals and not greenwashing.

I believe there could be some accuracy in his claims because some companies do imply that green energy could be a scam just to get others to agree with their efforts. Furthermore, a lot of greenwashing takes place which can cause for even more concern.

Sustainability has achieved a more ecological tone in the past few decades in terms of a business model, but it originally derives from the concept that a business is successful due to the interconnected areas of economics, culture and ecology. Sustainability is now becoming a somewhat fad and thus it is understandable that it could be misconstrued by some as a form of “greenwashing”. Greenwashing is the idea that a company markets their “green” or environmentally friendly changes in policy and values, despite no actual concrete changes in these areas, for example some argue that Fiji Water greenwasher in terms of their marketing as an environmentally friendly water company despite their little effort to actually go carbon-neutral. Many companies are seeing the

To a regular person, the global concern about ‘going green’ might appear as a result of speculation from nervous politicians and alarmed citizens. But the reality is totally different. In recent years, businesses have gained much knowledge about the impact of their activities on environment and in turns their customers. Businesses are successively venturing to earn greater revenues. In this process, they are trying out every best possibility to entice their contributors- from customers to investors. Regardless to say, stakeholders these days are more socially responsible than ever. So to keep up to their expectations, businesses are also trying to expand or limit their activities to save the environment- from doing relentless research on lowering waste to lean management and even trying out various eco-friendly activities. Despite of all these, the ultimate question remains unanswered if it is financially beneficial to adapt those initiatives that is going to serve the

In the article “Are You Being Green Washed?” Robbins (2008) states the image of “greenwashing” which is that numerous number of companies promote their services and their products as environmentally friendly but in reality it is harmful for the environment. The author illustrates that by giving some example of companies that claim they are eco- friendly such as Palm oil and Rayon. He states the impacts of such claim on the environment and consumers in some ways. However, in order to protect the environment form the negative impacts of globalization and consumerism, government and individual must make a joint effort by enact laws and educate people and companies about the impacts of such problem.

Being “Green” is an economic and socially driven philosophy that many companies adapt in an effort to help improve the environment and attract more customers into buying their products. Companies claiming to be “Green” started when more customers became aware of the growing effects of global warming and began to show interest in helping the environment by recycling, reusing, and reducing their products. Two companies, McDonalds and Apple, sought to join the Green Movement. They make the company look “Green” by eliminating their waste products that mostly end up in landfills and by saving energy through renewable sources. However, their claims may be questioned because of the way their products are made and the transportation involved in shipping them. In the book, Soil Not Oil: Environmental Justice in a Time of Climate Crisis, Vandana Shiva expresses how companies play a big role in global warming due to deforestation and chemical emissions being released by the burning of fossil

As we can see , environmental challenges in recent years have increased the trend of “going green” in businesses like never before. There are two main factors that are currently pushing toward environmental-friendly business practices, harsher international and local regulations, and the high fluctuations of fossil-fuel prices.

This company has implemented so many different methods for going green, therefore I will be only discussing two as follows; the first strategy is a slogan that is being used by the organization on a regular basis called by the name; Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. All the stores that the company has have taken the initiative to reduce the impact we as human beings create on the earth by reducing paper by going paper less, composting, using vegetable based inks etc. Reuse- this is done by reusing materials whenever it becomes possible. The company provides the use of reusable grocery bags to its customers, new stores are constructed with reclaimed wood and bricks and also the installation of rain water collection systems to reuse rain water for non-consumable purposes is being practiced. Recycle- this is done through the utilization of the delivery trucks which backhauls waste to regional facilities where it is turned into compost and donated to community gardens or stores. Other methods of recycling is done by replacing disposable batteries with rechargeable ones, using recycled paper with a high percentage of post-consumer waste

Additionally, on a socio-cultural level, many consumers feel that restaurants partaking in green initiatives and operations are doing their part to not only help sustain the earth but also to conserving natural resources (Hu, Parsa & Self, 2010). “Going green” is not simply a trend in the food service industry but around the world and in all forms of business. Corporate companies consider “going green” as a sensible business strategy in building recognition for corporate social responsibility among consumers concerned with environmental conservation efforts. Lastly, technological initiatives such as Energy Star appliances (dishwashers, refrigerators, ice machines, etc.) and faucets that use less water must also be analyzed in their ecological conservation capability and weighed against their financial costs (University of Notre Dame, 2014).

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

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