Greenwashing: The Good, Bad, or… Ugly?

If you watched the 2016 Super Bowl, you may have seen Colgate unveil their new PSA-esque commercial called ‘#EveryDropCounts’ this past Sunday, joining the 2016 Super Bowl commercial lineup, (see the commercial here). I was impressed with the message of the campaign and even more surprised to find that this plea was sponsored by Colgate. (I wasn’t the only one (Ostroff, 2016).) Understandably, the company does gain some brand image ‘brownie points’ an account of this advertisement; you would think paying over $5 million to promote the idea of water conservation during a nationally viewed sporting event is worth some kudos (Groden, 2015). However, despite the positivity surrounding this advertisement, criticisms have already been levied against this campaign arguing the $5 million could have been used to provide more than 4 million gallons of water to people in need around the world instead (Grenoble, 2016).

Now, these criticisms may just be the result of certain cantankerous environmentalists, but with the growing prevalence of green marketing/the promotion of companys’ ‘environmental friendliness,’ the reality behinds environmental claims can oftentimes be more than a bit dubious. Everywhere you turn, there are labels stating ‘all-natural,’ ‘greener,’ or ecofriendly, among others as brands try to capitalize on these new consumer sentiments. In fact, TerraChoice Environmental Marketing (2009) conducted a survey of 1,018 consumer products assuming 1,753 environmental claims. Of the 1,018 products examined by TCEM, all but one of the products surveyed used false or misleading claims to market their products – a phenomenon known as greenwashing.

Greenwashing – “the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service” TerraChoice Environmental Marketing (TCEM) (2009, p. 1). Terrachoice delineates seven ‘sins’ of greenwashing: Hidden trade-offs, no proof, vagueness, irrelevance, the lesser of two evils fibbing, and worshiping false labels. (Visit here for more information.)

So is the Colgate commercial an example of greenwashing? I personally think is is hard to find fault with this campaign. If people were to get up in arms over Colgate (especially with its strong CSR history) could any companies really be marketed as green? Moreover, within the past few weeks, there have definitely been more stark forms of this deceptive marketing tactic.

What’s new in the world of greenwashing? Well, to start off with the ‘bad,’ Nestlé KITKAT announced a new campaign this past week to raise awareness of its commitment to source from 100% sustainable cocoa – purportedly trying to better the lives of cocoa farmers, prevent child labor, and provide educational opportunities to local communities (Malas, 2016). The new campaign features four videos on Youtube (click here), featuring well known stars like soccer player Didier Drogba and YouTube personality Louis Cole. Yet, hidden below this seemingly kindhearted gesture, lies the result of the Supreme Court’s January decision refusing to dismiss a lawsuit against the company for supporting child slave labor (Kendall, 2016). Moreover, despite this new environmentally friendly advertisement campaign, the company has long been under fire from environmental and labor groups for several water scandals such as pumping millions of gallons of water out of California during severe drought (Brodwin, 2015) and sourcing unsustainable palm oil (Tabacek, 2010), to name a few. It appears that, in reality, Nestlé’s marketing efforts are more a diversionary tactic than anything else.

In other news, there’s also what we’ll call the ‘ugly.’ Those plans that aren’t entirely ‘good,’ but also not entirely ‘bad.’ In the tech world this week, Facebook announced it would be joining the likes of Apple and Google to build another tech center in Ireland, and like its predecessors, the social media giant is also promoting to customers that the center is slated to be covered with solar panels (Hill, 2016; Weinberger, 2016). Likely in an attempt to highlight the company’s commitment to social responsibility (https://www.facebook.com/green/). Yet, a recent study by the Lux Research center has demonstrated that the energy efficiencies claimed by these companies are often overstated. In fact, the report states that, “Google underestimates its dependence on coal in four out of seven data centers… As a result, the emissions Google is linked to are likely larger than they estimate by 42,000 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. That’s the equivalent of about 8,500 additional SUVs on the road” (Pierobon, 2016, para. 5). In an earlier 2011 report, Greenpeace called foul arguing that despite claims of sustainability, the tech firms use coal to meet between 50% and 80% of their energy needs. Though, I would also argue just using alternative energies is an improvement. I’d personally take 50% over 0% any day, so I would argue these marketing efforts are more of a grey area.

Ultimately, I do not think I would go so far as to claim that all ‘green’ campaigns are questionable. It is possible for companies to engage in ethical green marketing. But if anything, this mini-investigation into some recent brand image/sustainability promotions illustrates the importance of remaining aware when consuming products and perhaps looking into alternative viewpoints when companies begin to tout how ‘green’ they are. Accordingly, although there may be some relatively ‘good’ companies as we see with Colgate, there seem to be plenty more ‘bad’ ones and others that may fall in between.

Brodwin, E. (2015, April 10). People are furious that Nestle is still bottling and selling California’s water in the middle of the drought. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/nestle-is-bottling-water-from-california-2015-4

GreenPeace. (April 2011) How dirty is your data? A look at the energy choices that power cloud computing. Retrieved from http://www.greenpeace.org/international/Global/international/publications/climate/2011/Cool%20IT/dirty-data-report-greenpeace.pdf/

Grenoble, R. (2015, February 12). Colgate’s water saving Super Bowl ad dollars could provide 4.2 million gallons of H20. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colgate-super-bowl-adwater_us_56b8b778e4b08069c7a7fe1a

Groden, C. (2015, August 6). This is how much a 2016 Super Bowl ad costs. Fortune Magazine. Retrieved from http://fortune.com/2015/08/06/super-bowl-ad-cost/

Hill, J. S. (2016, January 26). Facebook announces newest 100% renewable data center to be built in Ireland. Clean Technica. Retrieved from http://cleantechnica.com/2016/01/26/facebook-announces-newest-100-renewable-data-centre-built-ireland/

Kendall, B. (2016, January 11). Supreme Court denies Nestle, Cargill, ADM appeal in slave labor case. The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from http://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-denies-nestle-cargill-adm-appeal-in-slave-labor-case-1452526492

Malas, J. W. (2016, February 10). J. Walter Thompson’s Team Iconic and Nestlé KitKat unveil campaign to support the Nestlé Cocoa Plan. PRWire. Retrieved from http://www.prweb.com/releases/2016/02/prweb13209995.htm

Oster, E. (2016, February 12). JWT’s team iconic wants to convince you that Nestlé cares about sustainability. AdWeek. http://www.adweek.com/agencyspy/jwts-team-iconic-wants-to-convince-you-that-nestle-cares-about-sustainability/102425

Ostroff, J. (2016, February 05). Colgate Super Bowl ad about saving water, not selling toothpaste. Huffington Post. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/02/05/colgate-super-bowl-ad-water_n_9162942.html

Pierobon, J. (2016, February 9). New data debunks some data centers’ clean energy claims. TriplePundit. Retrieved from http://www.triplepundit.com/2016/02/new-data-debunks-data-centers-clean-energy-claims/

Tabacek, K. (2010, March 18). Nestle stars in smear campaign over Indonesian palm oil. The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/nestle-indonesian-palm-oil

Terrachoice Environmental Marketing. (April 2009). The seven sins of greenwashing. Retrieved from http://sinsofgreenwashing.com/index3c24.pdf

Weinberger, M. (2016, January 24). Facebook’s newest data center is going to make some big tech companies very nervous. Business Insider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-eu-data-center-open-compute-project-2016-1.