At Empact, we can get immensely annoyed by people who call out on occasion that a sustainability claim is false. Sure, greenwashing is a problem that needs to be addressed. But if too many companies keep their green ambitions under the table precisely because they fear being accused of greenwashing, precious opportunities for change are lost. After all, the sustainability transition is not a matter of right and wrong, but of doing. So do you have green products, services, plans or ambitions? Then communicate them to the outside world, but be honest.
The importance of a green and fair image
Your image determines how customers, investors and policymakers view your company or brand, and is thus a decisive success factor. Important values that you want to project as a company include reliability and sustainability. What many companies struggle with is how to best unite these two values in their image. In other words, how do you communicate your sustainability performance honestly yet as convincingly as possible? If you are too cautious in this, you run the risk of being seen as a laggard. And when you make claims that are too implausible, you are unreliable and can be accused of greenwashing. Where do you draw the line?
What is greenwashing and what is it not?
Greenwashing is deliberately pretending to be greener than you are. So it is a way to improve your image with deception. It is a serious corporate sin, as is falsely accusing a company of greenwashing. After all, if it turns out that you have not been honest about sustainability, from then on you are not only less reliable in the eyes of many, but also less sustainable. So not good for your image, and bad for your business.
A textbook example of greenwashing is Shell with, among other things, their campaign about CO2-neutral gasoline. An absurd sounding claim of course, which the Advertising Code Commission quickly banned. It is bizarre at all for one of the world’s biggest polluters to present itself as sustainable.
A textbook example of what greenwashing is not is the accusation against Dopper that they are not so sustainable after all because there is plastic in their bottles. That there is plastic in it is indeed true, but that plastic is 100% recyclable, unlike all those Pet bottles. Furthermore, sustainability is woven into Dopper’s DNA, so it’s hard to say they’re “faking it.
Tips for making green claims without being accused of greenwashing
Our sustainability consultants will be happy to help you find a way to communicate your sustainability performance to the outside world in a sincere and effective way. Here are three tips in advance to get you started communicating honestly and effectively about sustainability.
Make only claims that you can substantiate
It is important that you can provide evidence to support the green claims you make. Not only does this make your claim more convincing, but if you do get accused of greenwashing, you can explain why not. For example, have a life cycle analysis (LCA) performed for your products, and refer to specific results from this analysis in your communications. Think about the number of pounds of plastic you save or the tons of CO2 you don’t emit.
Make sure claims are relevant
In addition, make sure that the sustainability claims you make relate to the product you are making them for. With power companies, for example, you often see that they advertise green power and green energy, but only a small portion of the energy they supply is actually green. Banks also have a hand in this. When you open an account, you will see windmills in Flevoland everywhere on the home page, while meanwhile a large part of your money goes to coal-fired power plants. Another part also goes to windmills, but still, these kinds of “visual claims” are of course not entirely fair.
Keep your communications up-to-date
It is also important to realize that the sustainability transition is an evolution, not a revolution (despite sometimes being called that). Thus, the world does not become sustainable overnight. This is a process. Technologies needed to live 100% sustainably are still under development, and we cannot use them (competitively) right now, for example. Think of hydrogen, high-quality recycled plastic and all kinds of artificial intelligence. At the same time, much more is possible today than ten years ago.
So making your business more sustainable is also a process. What this means for sustainability claims is that they can also be overtaken by time. What is currently “green” may be outdated within a few years. However, this is not to say that you shouldn’t communicate that 30% CO2 reduction in your logistics chain from last year now, because you are afraid that in some time it may be seen as greenwashing because it is no longer relevant. Just don’t let it stand for ten years. Let your communication move with your sustainability journey!