Greenwashing is a Poison
5 years, 9 months, 30 days, 19 hours
22 September 2023
Businesses can and should be a powerful force for change, but whilst profit maximisation remains seen as the overarching goal of any commercial organisation, it is no surprise if our motives are questioned when we strive to do good.
How we show that we really care, and we really do mean it, is a difficult challenge.
Greenwashing is a poison. It undermines not only the reputation of those companies that engage in it, but can, and has, spread into a more widespread public attitude that companies are not serious about climate change, let alone a broader ESG agenda.
We confront greenwashing by transparent measurement of what organisations actually do, rather than rely on what they say they do (or avoid mentioning). It is one of my great causes for optimism that as ESG reporting becomes obligatory for organisations across the world, greenwashing will become harder and consumers, employees, providers of finance, and the public at large will be able to properly distinguish the good companies from the bad, against a balanced scorecard of their impact in our world, as well as their financial sustainability.
But we are not there yet, and the public face of most organisations’ social and environmental impact remains the marketing department rather than the externally-assured annual report. So how does a company that really wants to convey that it is trying, do so?
Which brings me to this remarkable piece of marketing. It was shared with me by Josh Rodgers a couple of weeks ago. The myriad LinkedIn comments show that there are still plenty of detractors, and you may justifiably be one of them. Their products are not easily reparable or recyclable, rapidly become obsolete, and feed our rabid consumerism that demands endless extraction of the planet’s resources. The film is silent on things like use of rare earth metals and some of the numbers lack necessary context. But you can see how they have begun from the premise that every viewer will be a cynic, and tried to confront that. Casting themselves as passing the test of Mother Nature is stomach-churning, but I like the way they convey a sense of trying, that it is a journey, and how Tim Cook takes very personal responsibility for their future commitment at the end. So for me, whilst it is easy to pick holes in it, it conveys a degree of genuineness. And of good leadership.