Beware of “Greenwash”
There is a growing consumer concern about climate change and increasing demand for “green” products. Consumers are waking up to the need to look after the environment and marketers are jumping madly on the bandwagon.
Marketers sell on emotion so they often stretch the truth to build that very emotion that connects with the buyers. It is their job.
Up to 50% of Australians will now investigate the origins of a product or service, and will pay more for a product that they believe is from a sustainable source. This is the crux of the problem. THEY BELIEVE it is sustainable.
All this confusion about what “green” really means is spawning a wide range of environmental certifications; generally product certifications. There is confusion about what they all mean and whether and what quality any auditing has. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has launched a crackdown on green claims with the release of its guidelines, Green Marketing and the Trade Practices Act, in November 2007. Under the act, there is maximum fine of $1.2 million for companies engaging in misleading and deceptive conduct.
The ACCC is already taking court action against car manufacturer Saab. Saab, being Swedish actually has a green production and management system but the marketers went too far. Woolworths has changed its packaging of Woolworths Select tissue products after an ACCC probe. An ACCC spokesman says that while large companies have been targeted so far, smaller businesses will be the subject of future investigations. That includes all of us.
While a product may be certified green by some organisation, it is more satisfactory to say, as so many overseas brands do, “produced by an ISO 14001 certified business” than trying to dream up various new standards. This is because the international standard for environmental management practices, ISO 14001 certifies that the business you are buying from has considered all its significant environmental impacts, including product and energy impacts of obtaining and handling all the products and services and can demonstrate that these are managed in a sustainable manner. ISO 14001 also brings real benefits to the individual business by increasing its efficiency and improving its environmental impacts.
Once we get into carbon, we come up with another “bag of worms”. The ACCC is set to release additional guidelines in the coming months for claims relating to carbon offsets, representing a reduction of greenhouse gases, and carbon neutrality, where the carbon emissions of the company or a product or service are negated by offsets. Interestingly, if you look on the web the airlines vary enormously in their reporting of the greenhouse gas emissions of the same aircraft flying the same route and in fact it does vary every trip depending on things like loaded weight, weather condition and time spent circling airports because of air traffic congestion.
The issues include the integrity of carbon offsets and measurement of the initial carbon emissions. A common mistake people make is to claim carbon neutrality for a product when the company has only considered emissions during manufacturing and not the total life cycle, which includes use and disposal. And this does not even touch on some of the tree planting practices to claim carbon credits. Some schemes are well run but others are not.
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May 9th, 2008 at 9:21 pm
I heard on the news that other regulators countries are also looking at “greenwash” in marketing seriously also. The US was specifically mentioned which was great because I was spammed by a whole heap of people in that country suggesting Mother’s Day gifts that were absolutely drenched in greenwash.