on greenwashing

Greenwashing is the process of conveying a false impression or misleading information about how a company’s products are environmentally sound. Greenwashing involves making an unsubstantiated claim to deceive consumers into believing that a company’s products are environmentally friendly or have a greater positive environmental impact than they actually do

Many triggers can help to spot Greenwashing:

. A claim that a product is "green" based on an unreasonably narrow set of attributes without attention to other important environmental issues. Or a claim that is simply false.

. A claim that cannot be substantiated by easily accessible information or by a reliable third-party certification.

. A claim that is so poorly defined to be misunderstood by the consumer. "All-natural", for example, is not necessarily "green".

. A claim that, through words or images, gives the impression of a third-party endorsement where none exists.

. A claim that may be true within the product category, but that risks distracting consumers from the greater environmental impact of the category as a whole, or from a company that makes on product sustainable but many others that are not.

Innocent Drinks is a prime example of the implausible approach. The company is owned by Coca Cola, the worst plastic polluter in the world. The company also uses single-use plastic, which is terrible for the environment.

But the limit here is very vague. Taking off the obvious examples that brake many of this points, there is a full market of products that are in the middle, and if we are highly strict, even if they would want they will fall on one of those points. A shampoo brand for example that is certified as organic but uses single use plastic bottles, even if they are partly recycled , would this count as greenwashing?

How can we design products really sustainable on a manufacture system that is not?

How can we make profit without sustainable products end up being elite?