Greenwashing – Are you Consuming Greenwashed products?
Are you consuming Greenwashed products?
We live in a world where the magic of the deceptive commercials and heavy propaganda are powerful instruments at service to companies. Unfortunately, many of these companies do not have the best interest of their consumers as a priority, not even of the environment, nor the communities they are located.
The term greenwashing was coined by New York environmentalist Jay Westervelt in a 1986 essay regarding the hotel industry’s practice of placing placards in each room promoting reuse of towels ostensibly to “save the environment.”
Westervelt noted that, in most cases, little or no effort toward reducing energy waste was being made by these institutions—as evidenced by the lack of cost reduction this practice effected. Westervelt opined that the actual objective of this “green campaign” on the part of many hoteliers was, in fact, increased profit. (Wikipedia)
Greenwashing, or “green sheen,” is a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s products, aims or policies are environmentally friendly. Evidence that an organization is greenwashing often comes from pointing out the spending differences: when significantly more money or time has been spent advertising being “green” (that is, operating with consideration for the environment), than is actually spent on environmentally sound practices.
Greenwashing efforts can range from changing the name or label of a product to evoke the natural environment on a product that contains harmful chemicals to multimillion dollar advertising campaigns portraying highly polluting energy companies as eco-friendly.
