There’s a surplus of “green” products out there. At first glance, it seems great to see so many companies willing to change their products, ingredients or packaging to be more eco-friendly and raise more awareness on the current environmental crisis.
After all, with some of the highest rates of carbon emissions in our air, between 200 and 2,000 species going extinct yearly, and global temperatures dropping at a record speed, it’s no wonder that so many people are taking initiative to fight back and create change.
The problem is here: these “green” products aren’t doing anything. Mostly because they aren’t even “green”. Over the past couple of years, environmental awareness has become a trend that everyone knows gets attention. Research even shows that consumers will go towards products marketed with green packaging adorned with pictures of leaves or trees as a way to justify buying harmful products in the first place, or as a way to contribute to saving the world, one green product at a time. It’s the small things that count, right?
As a way to profit off of this new trend, companies will create “green” products that often falsely advertise the company’s intentions. These new products don’t have small price tags, either. Organic and “naturally-sourced” materials will often come at unjustified prices, with very little positive reward.
This false advertising is sometimes all about reputation. Companies that look like they care about going green, or that want their consumers to think they are the “good guys”. However, these companies will benefit off of greenwashing their existing (and damaging) products.
One common example of corporate greenwashing is PepsiCo’s Palm Oil Progress Report, otherwise known as a… disaster.
PepsiCo, a multi-billionaire food company (owner of Pepsi, Lay’s chips, Doritos, Quaker’s Oatmeal, etc.) rolled out a 16-page progress report claiming many things, such as saying PepsiCo was committed to ending deforestation, and was recognized for “leading the way” in sustainability by WWF. However, PepsiCo was only given a 2.8 out of 10 by WWF, their main suppliers extracted resources from the Leuser Ecosystem in Southeast Asia (the only place on earth where Sumatran elephants, orangutans, tigers and rhinos coexist in nature), and their company is constantly being accused of violating the rights of their workers and subjecting them to unfair wages and work environments.
So what is there to do? As a consumer it’s important to be smart about our purchases and shopping habits. If your dish soap claims to be “green”, ask yourself, “why?”. What ingredients/materials justify the claims, and is the company actually dedicated to creating eco-friendly products, or are they in it for the extra cash? Greenwashing is a problem that will only get bigger as we fall deeper into an environmental crisis like this one. As long as PepsiCo and other companies are willing to take advantage of people’s concern for the earth, there is always and opportunity to change things around and speak up.
Sources used:
http://wwf.panda.org/our_work/biodiversity/biodiversity/http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1989948
http://www.nationalpost.com/story.html?id=1989948
https://www.agirpourlenvironnement.org/blog/greenwashing-sciencesdo-et-mcpo-3724
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