Just In Time For Earth Day - A Handy Updated Guide To Corporate Greenwashing Bullshit
As big businesses face more pressure to act on climate change, corporations have unleashed a tsunami of environmental pledges, net-zero commitments and sustainability certifications, all designed to show they are part of the solution. Often, critics say, these claims are just “greenwashing” — environmental marketing with little or no substance behind it. One recent review of 500 commercial websites by Britain’s Competition and Markets Authority found 40 percent of environmental claims to be misleading in some way, such as using terms like “sustainable” without defining them or omitting pertinent information about environmental harms. “Carbon neutral” usually does not mean a firm has zero carbon emissions. A green certification label on a product’s packaging may have no connection to a standard-setting group.
For the average consumer, it can be difficult to assess which companies are taking meaningful steps to combat climate change, said Frederic Hans, a climate policy analyst at the NewClimate Institute, an independent, Germany-based organization that promotes measures to slow Earth’s warming. The group this year analyzed the climate plans of 25 big companies and found many of them overestimated the extent to which their actions would reduce carbon emissions.
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As part of its commitment to the 2014 New York Declaration on Forests, McDonald’s pledged to “eliminate deforestation in supply chains” for its beef, chicken, palm oil, coffee and fiber-based packaging products by 2020. After that deadline passed, the fast food chain said it had nearly completed a goal that sounded similar but was worded slightly differently: most of these products “support deforestation-free supply chains.” On its website, McDonald’s acknowledges that the two terms have different meanings. Originally, McDonald’s said it would eliminate all deforestation from its supply chain. Now, McDonald’s says it is more careful about sourcing commodities from parts of the world with a higher risk of deforestation. In the footnotes, the company lists several exemptions to its deforestation goal, including beef used as a flavoring in sauces, soy used as an ingredient in food products, coffee extracts used in drinks such as frappés, and fiber in wood stirrers, cutlery, tray liners and straws.
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A few years ago, paint maker Benjamin Moore marketed some of its products with a Green Promise label, which the company made itself, along with claims that the paint has zero chemical emissions and is “green without compromise.” The Federal Trade Commission sued Benjamin Moore in 2017, arguing it was making untrue claims about its Natura line of paint and deceiving customers into believing the products had been certified by an independent group. After the FTC ordered Benjamin Moore to be more transparent with customers, the company added a warning to clarify that its paints “emit chemicals during the painting process and while drying,” according to the FTC order. It altered the label to include the words “Benjamin Moore’s Green Promise.” It stopped selling Natura paint last year. Kelly Sinatra, a spokeswoman for Benjamin Moore, said in an email that some of this information is inaccurate, without providing details. She didn’t respond to requests for clarification.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/04/21/greenwashing-101-how-decipher-corporate-claims-about-climate/
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