GREENWASHING

Climate friendly. Carbon neutral. Ecological. Responsible. Sustainable.

These are the summaries what it is all about. Sometimes it feels like companies pick one green leaf to logo, put Bio word in it, create beautiful story behind and that’s it! Everyone can use these words in their values but what these words really mean?

The current world is experiencing the golden age of “bio” chatter. It is a gift and a curse in the same package. On the one hand, it’s absolutely fantastic that things are being driven more environmentally friendly, but on the other hand, it is once again opening the playing field for all abusers who are taking advantage of this set-up.

Greenwashing is something that cannot be viewed from just one angle. The bottom line is really a lot more complicated than you first think. At the moment, there are very few regulations and restrictions in the bio-based materials market, and sometimes it seems that we are somewhere in the wild west with it. Many brands and materials are put in the same basket and from there that shit is pounded through a fan to wrap the benefits without looking at the bases or at least relying on questionable interpretations.

In many cases, it is the reader's responsibility to find out what is really being sought and what the background statements are about. Take, for example, Shell, which advertised in its fuel delivery car that it was carbon neutral. Excuse me? So one of the world’s largest producers of fossil fuels is suddenly carbon neutral? According to Shell, the average consumer interprets carbon neutrality in the text as referring specifically to the tank truck in which the advertisement is stuck. The delivery car was in their emissions compensation program, and the emissions caused by the drive have been offset, the company said and presented its compensation program. It’s not a surprise that, the ad was banned as misleading.

As with this example, we can see that it is much more complicated than getting to know it from just one angle. Interpretation is often left to the consumer, and it is therefore the responsibility of all of us to trust the message or to start digging deeper. It is great that these issues are being addressed, and I believe that they will be much more realistic in the future. Fortunately, the distorted reality will not last long and things will be corrected sooner or later

Do you have experience from misleading marketing and greenwashing?

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Recycling VS innovations