When a company falsely claims to act sustainably, it’s called greenwashing. Here’s how brands pull it off, and how to spot the tactics before they work on you.
By Saskia Ruttmann
What exactly is greenwashing?
As demand grows for fairly produced, environmentally conscious, sustainable products, companies have picked up on it - and many now try to project a “green” image their practices don’t actually back up. Greenwashing is the deliberate cultivation of that image without the substance behind it: a calculated deception of consumers. It doesn’t just polish a company’s reputation, either - it also lets them charge more for their products.
How does greenwashing actually work?
Through carefully targeted marketing and PR, a company projects environmental credibility it hasn’t earned, either by obscuring facts or by drawing attention away from other problems. To recognise greenwashing when you see it, it helps to know the standard playbook companies use to appear “greener” than they are:
1. Outright false claims
The most blatant form of greenwashing: statements that are simply untrue, designed to mislead. Some foods and garments carry seals of approval invented by the company itself, seals that don’t officially exist at all - things like “controlled organic grain” or “biologically certified.”
2. One sustainable product used to launder an entire range
Some companies launch a single product marketed as especially eco-friendly, specifically to draw attention away from the rest of their decidedly unsustainable range. If a label rolls out one organic collection while everything else it sells is produced with no regard for sustainability, that’s greenwashing.
3. Just one “green” step in a much longer supply chain
A label advertises that its clothing is made from “organically grown cotton.” What it doesn’t mention is whether that cotton is later treated with chemicals, or under what working conditions it was grown.
4. Charitable giving as a smokescreen
When a particularly environmentally damaging company takes up a social cause and makes sure everyone knows about it, that’s a deliberate distraction from its environmental record, and a boost to its image. Take a cruise line that advertises donating two percent of ticket revenue to environmental organisations: that gesture of goodwill quietly draws attention away from the enormous environmental toll of cruising itself, casting the company in a more flattering light. Here, the founding principle of corporate social responsibility - “do good, and talk about it” - gets twisted into something else entirely.
5. Advertising things that were never in question
Some companies dress up their products with claims of virtue they never lacked in the first place. Think of a food that has always been free of animal products suddenly slapping “vegan” on the label, or a hairspray touting “CFC-free,” despite CFCs having been banned for nearly 30 years.
6. Flattering framing
Products are often deliberately dressed up to look better than they are. Vegan products, for instance, are good for animal welfare - but that doesn’t automatically make them better for the environment. The same goes for organic products: an organic burger isn’t necessarily healthier.
7. Green packaging
There’s an old saying: never judge a book by its cover. The same holds for products - green packaging is no guarantee of an environmentally friendly product inside it. Images or photos printed on packaging don’t say anything about how sustainably the contents were actually made.
How do you spot greenwashing?
The basic rule: question everything, stay sceptical, and do your homework. Always check the back of the product and look into the manufacturer. Here are a few tips to help you avoid falling for greenwashing.
1. Pay attention to the wording
“Organic/eco” and “from certified organic farming” are legally protected, verified terms. Words like “climate-neutral,” “biological,” or “environmentally friendly,” on the other hand, are unregulated and can be used freely, meaning they say nothing meaningful about a product’s actual sustainability. It’s worth learning the key certification seals and looking for them specifically. For clothing, that means things like the Fair Trade Textiles Standard and the Global Organic Textile Standard.
2. Don’t be fooled by the packaging
Green packaging gets associated with sustainable products, and organic labels lean on that colour heavily to appeal to environmentally conscious customers. But don’t be swayed by a photo of free-range hens on an egg carton or a green shampoo bottle: packaging is often used to dress up a product that’s neither sustainable nor particularly healthy. The same goes for clothing - a paper price tag instead of a plastic one doesn’t make a garment sustainable.
3. Once bitten…
Certain companies - Nestlé, Starbucks, or McDonald’s, to name a few - have built something of a reputation for not acting in environmentally responsible ways, and they often try to soften that image with well-timed campaigns. Sure, everyone deserves the chance to change, but with certain brands, it pays to look twice.
4. Let someone else do the legwork
Since you can’t spend hours vetting every product on the supermarket shelf or in an online shop, let others do that work for you. Apps like EWG’s Skin Deep let you check the ingredients in cosmetics, while organisations like the Ethical Company Organisation publish information on companies they’ve vetted.
Choose brands and companies with a genuinely holistic approach
Whether you’re buying clothing or food, check where it comes from and who made it, and don’t let false seals or slick campaigns lead you astray. That’s how you spot greenwashing, and how you respond to it. Buy clothing, for instance, from brands that live sustainability throughout their entire process - from how raw materials are sourced, to how workers are paid, to how goods are shipped - and that are transparent about how their products are made. With more thoughtful buying decisions, you can genuinely contribute to protecting the environment.
