How to avoid greenwashing within a business
Do you know what greenwashing is? And if you do, do you know how to avoid greenwashing? Based on a recent article from Business Matters magazine, “Almost half of UK businesses say they are failing to deliver on their sustainable commitments, with one in five admitting to publicly exaggerating their green credentials”.
This figure is highlighting the fact there is a larger issue at the forefront of the sustainable initiatives that all companies should have, and that actually, most are not hitting their “green” objectives or are exaggerating their figures. This is effectively what the term “greenwashing” refers to.
What is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is a term used for companies which are claiming that they are making headway with environmental issues, sustainable efforts and goals within their company, however, they are not actually doing what they are saying or not hitting the goals they are setting.
It is based on the term “whitewashing”, companies and organisations glossing over particular facts by presenting a biased representation of goals, figures and facts. Greenwashing is the same, just based on environmental issues. Companies use marketing material to promote “Green” policies without following through with them.
How to avoid greenwashing
Avoiding greenwashing is easy, however, some can see that as a controversial answer. There are some simple things that companies can do to avoid greenwashing, but there are some more complicated things that need addressing.
A few simple things that companies can do are:
- Avoid using terms which could be misconstrued or phrases that can be misleading
- Do not fabricate any claims
- Do not take a product which can be conceived as dangerous and attempt to make them green, such as a “green cigarette”
None of the above seems to be too difficult but it is amazing how some goals can be seen as unachievable and how people can stretch the truth when it comes to potentially missing these goals.
Why are some companies greenwashing?
Companies are being asked to think about their carbon footprint, consider their contribution towards environmental impacts and reduce this impact as much as possible.
The problem is, some of the goals set at the beginning of a year may have seemed achievable initially, however, ten months later, with the deadline looming, they realize that these were somewhat ambitious and instead of openly admitting it, people are “greenwashing”.
Can igus® be accused of greenwashing?
We have been very open about having a number of green initiatives and goals and actually, we are on track to complete the vast majority of these, if not all. As a worldwide company, the goals are not only set from our head office, who have their own set for the factory and offices in Germany, but we as subsidiaries set our own. These can be things that we want to achieve or can be based on guidance from Germany.
This allows the goals and targets to be set within realistic reach and knowing our limits and capabilities.
For example, one of the goals for our friends across the Atlantic, the UK office, is that they want to be CO2 neutral by 2025. There has been significant progress towards this which you can read here: https://blog.igus.co.uk/how-to-reduce-your-carbon-footprint/
They also have goals such as recycling as many old energy chains as possible in our chainge programme. You can read more about that here: https://blog.igus.co.uk/how-are-igus-products-part-of-the-virtuous-circle/
Another initiative is that as we wanted to find a way of recycling our cables that were no longer used, we created the chainflex® recycling program. This program allows us to recycle the cables without them going into landfill and, at the end of the year, we will donate all the proceeds to the Woodland Trust.
I think avoiding greenwashing is easy, however, it relies on truth and recognizing what is realistic as a goal and what is unachievable but hopefully you will understand how to avoid greenwashing.
