Buzzwords such as sustainable, eco-friendly, natural and green are common on the labels of everything we consume be it food or clothes. We, however, need to question whether businesses taking notice are genuinely encouraging conscious brands or merely ‘performing‘ sustainability.

Greenwashing is on the rise, making it difficult for individuals to know whether they are consuming responsibly or hooked on to misleading practices. Such practices deceive customers with claims that are not backed by evidence and bear social, ethical and environmental repercussions. The term ‘Greenwashing‘ was coined by environmentalist Jay Westervelt in 1986, which refers to misleading advertisements or false claims by companies that suggest they are doing more for the environment than they actually are. Greenwashing, also called “Green Sheen“, is a form of marketing spin in which, Green Public Relation (PR) and Green Marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization’s products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.

Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or providing misleading information about how a company’s products are more environmentally sound. Greenwashing is considered an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly. Why do companies market themselves as ‘Green‘ ? Companies do better when they make the consumer feel better about their purchase. Companies that have a real positive impact on the environment are more than happy to share their progress in their marketing. It helps build their character in the consumer’s eyes. Several independent brands are reinventing themselves as genuinely conscious of the environment. Big brands, however, use the vast profits generated through cheap products, through enormous marketing budgets to promote Company’s Green Branding.

With this, sustainability becomes synonymous with ‘eco-friendly’ at the expense of essential economic, health, social, and cultural facets. The industry’s reluctance to tackle sustainability holistically and resorting to cherry-picking to fulfil its agenda, is more damaging to the ecosystem than beneficial.

Let’s see just for an example, of Greenwashing in Fashion Companies, especially those who claim that their products are environmentally friendly, when often they are not. Examples of greenwashing from companies today include the fast-fashion brands Uniqlo, H&M, and Lululemon – which are popular with college students. The environmentally conscious consumer searches for “Green” products. It’s a sentiment growing within the clothing industry after being a niche market for decades. At the same time, for college students, it can be hard to choose an environmentally friendly piece of clothing while on a budget.

The fast fashion industry has been a major culprit of this malpractice. They have often been found to use the climate crisis as a means of marketing without pursuing a fundamental shift in its business model. Unfortunately, creating an add-on sustainability agenda to their overall business model, which relies on an exploitative and unsustainable supply chain, cannot ultimately tackle the larger problems of textile waste and climate change. Major fashion corporations absolve themselves of the responsibility of handling or treating this waste. Instead, they introduce the sustainability criteria through greenwashing to promote mindless consumerism that makes customers feel good about themselves. Arguably, ‘Sustainability‘ by these fast fashion brands does not ensure reforms in garment-producing factories for better conditions and wages. Neither does it involve resilience in their sustainability effort when seeking to mass-produce ‘Sustainable‘ clothing.

In April 2019, Swedish fashion giant Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) introduced its ‘Conscious Collection’ featuring leather-like Pinatex products, made from orange peelings and pineapple leaves. However, one can question Pinatex’s legitimacy as ‘sustainable’ and ‘eco-friendly’ since it contains plastic and petroleum-based agents that offset any probable positive, eco-friendly impact of utilising fruit fibres and makes it non-biodegradable. Brands also often promote greenwashing by claiming to use natural degradable fibres like viscose, rayon and bamboo. It is, however, important to understand how these materials are sourced to determine their closed-loop sustainability and trade-offs. For instance, while bamboo is a fast-growing fibre, it is frequently exposed to harmful pesticides and chemicals while turning into the fabric, making it very polluting. Similarly, viscose can contribute to deforestation unless it is extracted from a certified source. Vegan does not mean sustainable either as it is made from oil, making it environmentally damaging.

Greenwashing is also witnessed as a spin of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), even in case of many most reputed well established Companies throughout the world, in declaring itself to promote environmentally-friendly policies whereas, in reality, the company does not live up to the commitment. Companies keep making unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of its products, services, technology and strategic practices. It’s, in fact, an eyewash.

Many of the Fashion Brands, Claim that they reuse and recycle hundred percent of their discarded and used clothes. But many global research studies, including that at IISD, We have found in reality harly less than 18 percent of the rejected clothes are recycled, as most of them, could be at the tune of more than 80% ends up in landfill bound disposal or are incinerated at large. The Profit these Companies earn which comes from negative externalities to our living environment, ecosystems of the mother earth.

Getting away with it

• The most significant loophole in sustainability is its lack of a clear, quantifiable definition. Terms such as ‘ethical’ or ‘eco-friendly’ have no legal significance. This encourages the lack of accountability of fashion brands.
• Absence of empirical data and government-subsidised studies on the impact of fashion also poses a hurdle.
• Another reason contributing to greenwashing is insufficient public awareness and education around the harmful practices the industry embraces, allowing companies to continue spewing false information.

The Negative impact of greenwashing

What we the consumer can do ?
Consumers shop because it feels good, and when the dirty truth is kept secret and even deliberately hidden in the cases of greenwashing, there is little an environmentalist can do to change consumer spending habits other than exposing the truth and bring it out clearly with evidence for public scrutiny.

While navigating and identifying insidious greenwashing can be overwhelmingly difficult, a fundamental rule of thumb would be to see importantly whether a brand promotes sustainability as an add-on rather than a core to its business model.

One needs to look out for numbers, including facts and figures backed by science instead of vague words. For instance, one could question. What percentage of a certain brand’s ‘sustainably made‘ or ‘eco-friendly‘ products are made with recycled materials or what quantifiable objectives have these brands listed publicly.

Time has come, now, without further delay, each consumer has to investigate and find out the truth against tall Green Claims or likey Greenwashing that Businesses are making to gain their Support, Goodwill and Trust. and must voice the same, in the community at large. Moreover consumers must have to be more aware of the ethics of what they buy as sustainable products in our daily today routine life.

The Author is a Leading Indian Sustainability Thought Leader and Director General at Indian Institute of Sustainable Development (IISD), New Delhi and deeply engaged in Climate Action Leadership Initiatives of UNFCCC, UNEP and Government of India.