2022 was the yr that policymakers began to take greenwashing a bit extra severely.
For the primary time, firms discovered themselves in severe authorized sizzling water (see examples under) for exaggerating or falsifying their sustainability credentials, which could clarify why some manufacturers have determined to retreat into their shells quite than discuss their sustainability progress this yr – a phenomenon referred to as “inexperienced hush”.
Even so, governments, customers and civic society teams scrutinised inexperienced claims extra carefully than ever this yr. In 2020, Eco-Enterprise recorded eight instances of manufacturers referred to as out for greenwashing. In 2021, there have been 11. This yr, we noticed 18 – and there are likely many extra examples of inexperienced hyperbole finger-pointing which have gone underneath the radar.
This was additionally the yr that completely different types of greenwashing emerged, from labelling plastic merchandise as inexperienced on Earth Day to fossil fuels companies “sportswashing” at tennis tournaments. Greenwashing claims additionally emerged from sudden sources – environmental teams have been lambasted for making suspect claims, significantly within the cowboyish plastic cleanup and recycling house.
Eco-Enterprise shines a lightweight on the occasions manufacturers, governments and non-profits have been accused of constructing inexperienced claims that appeared out of sync with actuality.
HSBC: We develop bushes (but additionally coal vegetation)
HSBC’s poster advert talked up the financial institution’s future plans and made no point out of its investments in fossil fuels. Picture: Twitter
The world’s largest shopper financial institution had an advert marketing campaign pulled down in the UK after the nation’s promoting watchdog dominated that HSBC was touting a tree-planting scheme and its net-zero plan with out acknowledging that it funds fossil gasoline tasks on the similar time. The financial institution has pledged to cut back its thermal coal financing publicity by a minimum of 25 per cent by 2025, however it’s nonetheless one of many world’s largest backers of fossil gasoline tasks. HSBC’s advertisements “omitted materials info and have been due to this fact deceptive,” the Promoting Requirements Authority dominated. HSBC’s humbling prompted observers to surprise if it will result in extra scrutiny of financial institution promoting. Banks discuss sustainability greater than some other sector, significantly in Asia.
Michelin: Inexperienced finance for deforestation
Michelin-star greenwash? The tyre large’s sustainability dedication was linked to deforestation in Indonesia. Picture: Michelin’s dedication to sustainable pure rubber on YouTube
Michelin, the French tyre firm additionally recognized for its information to fancy eating places, made a widely-publicised dedication to plant rubber bushes to re-green 90,000 hectares of land trashed by unlawful logging in Indonesia in 2015. The undertaking was hailed as the corporate’s flagship sustainability dedication. However an investigation by non-profit Mighty Earth and Paris-based publication Voxeurop, printed in November, discovered that the undertaking, financed by US$95 million of inexperienced bonds, was truly a monoculture pure rubber plantation that changed hundreds of hectares of orangutan, tiger and elephant habitat that had been bulldozed by Royal Lestari Utama, Michelin’s native companion.
Santos: Sportswashing tennis
A Santos advert that ran with its sponsorship of Tennis Australia promoted the corporate’s position as a gasoline provider. Santos on YouTube
In a high-profile case of sportswashing – that’s, firms utilizing sport to masks a questionable repute – Tennis Australia, the sporting physique for Australian tennis, ditched oil and gasoline firm Santos as a sponsor in January following a marketing campaign from environmental activists. Santos used Tennis Australia occasions to promote the roles supplied by the gasoline trade. “There was a giant effort to make it unacceptable for cigarette firms to sponsor occasions … now it’s the time to do the identical for fossil gasoline firms,” mentioned Lucy Manne, chief government officer of 350 Australia, the non-profit that led the marketing campaign in opposition to Santos. Tennis is a sport that’s significantly affected by local weather change. On the 2014 Australian Open, play was suspended and 1,000 spectators have been handled for warmth exhaustion when temperatures rose above 40 levels Celsius.
Massive Oil: Inexperienced claims outweigh inexperienced investments
Power supermajors inexperienced claims. Photographs: shell.com, bp.com, totalenergies.com, exxonmobil.com, chevron.com
Oil and gasoline companies are sometimes shamed for being prolific greenwashers, and a research by InfluenceMap, a non-profit that displays company lobbying, tried to show it. It discovered that six out of each 10 items of public communication made by ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP and TotalEnergies in 2021 positioned these companies as a constructive drive in tackling local weather change – however solely 17 per cent of those firms’ investments over the identical interval went into renewable power. The research additionally discovered that these companies have stripped out fossil gasoline from their communications. “The one time BP mentions ‘oil’ within the ‘Who we’re’ part of its web site is when speaking about its historical past,” mentioned Faye Holder, programme supervisor for InfluenceMap.
H&M: Quick fiction
H&M has been sued twice in a yr for greenwashing. Picture: H&M
H&M was sued in a New York federal courtroom in July for attempting to dupe eco-conscious customers keen to pay extra for inexperienced merchandise with a clothes vary that featured “environmental scorecards” within the labeling, packaging, and advertising and marketing. The concept of the scorecards was to tell the buyer how sustainable an merchandise was. However the firm in the end needed to scrap the thought after a Dutch regulator dominated that it had used “falsified info that didn’t comport with the underlying knowledge.” The model was sued once more in November for equally deceptive claims about its “Aware Selection” assortment. Critics mentioned H&M’s cheap-and-fast enterprise mannequin can’t be referred to as “sustainable” irrespective of how a lot of its cotton is natural and recycled.
The Ocean Cowl-up?
Too clear? Doubters imagine the non-profit could have staged an ocean cleanup video to impress funders. Picture: The Ocean Cleanup on Twitter
The Ocean Cleanup has been attempting to chip away on the Nice Pacific Rubbish Patch since 2013, when Dutch former aerospace engineering scholar Boyan Slat introduced he was going to deal with marine plastic air pollution by scooping it out of the ocean in a ship. However in February, Slat was accused of staging a video that confirmed plastic garbage being hauled out of the ocean. Doubters, together with fishermen and marine biologists, mentioned the retrieved rubbish appeared suspiciously clear for stuff that had supposedly been bobbing about within the sea for years. The place was the biofoul? Slat said the plastic was nearly spotless as a result of that a part of the Pacific Ocean is low in vitamins and uncovered ultraviolet gentle, which might have prevented organisms from rising on it.
DBS: Extra like a local weather motion delayer, much less like an eco-warrior
DBS’s ‘Extra like an eco-warrior, much less like a financial institution’ advert slogan was utilized in a LinkedIn submit that mentioned the “ethical dimension” of quitting coal. Picture: DBS
The chief government of Southeast Asia’s largest financial institution, Piyush Gupta, was referred to as out for defending DBS’s choice to attend till 2039 to cease financing climate-wrecking coal energy in a speech that was posted on LinkedIn in August. Gupta mentioned it was a tough ethical choice to retreat from coal in growing international locations like Indonesia the place many individuals lack electrical energy. The submit ended with an iteration of the financial institution’s promoting slogan, “Extra like an eco-warrior, much less like a financial institution”. Cue outrage from influence buyers and local weather consultants on LinkedIn, who accused the financial institution of attempting to make use of power poverty to justify local weather motion delay.
Although DBS is arguably Southeast Asia’s main financial institution on local weather motion, setting interim net-zero targets in September, it has not been yr for DBS’s advertising and marketing division. It was additionally referred to as out for gender stereotyping with the advert tagline “Extra like your mum’s cooking, much less like a financial institution”. Gupta had earlier been posting about about DBS’s “best-in-class” efforts at bridging the gender hole by that includes within the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index.
Unilever: Faux plastic guarantees
Single-use plastic sachets on the market in a retailer in Indonesia. Picture: Robin Hicks/Eco-Enterprise
An investigation by Reuters in June discovered that sustainability pin-up Unilever has been lobbying in opposition to potential bans of the single-use plastic sachets it makes use of to promote its merchandise in growing international locations – regardless of publicly promising to section the environmentally hazardous packaging out. In a speech to buyers in 2019, Hanneke Faber, Unilever’s president for international meals and refreshments, had mentioned the multilayered design of the packages is “evil since you can’t recycle it.” Unilever pioneered the introduction of plastic sachets to allow poor households within the World South to afford its merchandise in small portions. The throwaway sachets have devastated waterways and marine ecosystems. Unilever arrange a recycling plant for sachets in Indonesia, however the plant bumped into technical difficulties and an investigation by a non-profit revealed the plant has been deserted. Unilever has denied the closure of the plant.
Coldplay: The deforestation tour
Coldplay lead singer Chris Martin. Picture: Emma Svensson/Flickr
Softrock band Coldplay felt responsible about flying around the globe on “carbon-tastic” excursions, so in Might it introduced a bunch of measures to cut back its footprint. One was a kinetic dance ground that produces electrical energy from the motion of excited followers. However the one which irked environmentalists probably the most was a partnership with Finnish oil firm Neste, which claims to be the world’s largest producer of sustainable biofuels, to chop the footprint of the band’s airtravel. The firm’s palm oil suppliers lower down 10,000 hectares of forest between 2019 and 2020, in keeping with a research by Buddies of the Earth.
“Neste is cynically utilizing Coldplay to greenwash its repute. It is a firm that’s linked to the sort of deforestation that may appal [Coldplay lead singer] Chris Martin and his followers. It’s not too late, they need to drop their partnership with Neste now and give attention to actually clear options as a substitute,” Carlos Calvo Ambel, a senior director of marketing campaign group, Transport and Setting, advised The Guardian. They didn’t.
Lazada: Eco-friendly for Earth Day
Manufacturers labelled “planet-friendly” in an Earth Day promotion included polyester t-shirts, ladies’s razors and electrical toothbrushes, which have been made or packaged with “lowered or higher” plastic [click to enlarge]. Picture: Lazada
Alibaba-owned Southeast Asian e-commerce large Lazada launched a one-day-only marketing campaign to advertise “eco-friendly” merchandise on its web site that use much less or “higher” plastic for Earth Day on 22 April. Critics mentioned that lots of the merchandise marketed as “planet-friendly” have been disposable on a regular basis merchandise reminiscent of polyester t-shirts and girls’s razors. Selling and discounting such objects does nothing to ease Southeast Asia’s plastic air pollution downside, they grumbled.
Deutsche Financial institution: A landmark case in opposition to “inexperienced” investments?
Asoka Woehrmann resigned as chief government of DWS after a police probe into alleged deceptive “inexperienced” investments. Picture: DWS on Twitter
A police raid on the places of work of Deutsche Financial institution’s funding arm DWS in Germany might go down in historical past as first time a serious multinational enterprise has been wrapped by lawmakers for greenwashing investments. DWS was accused of falsely claiming that that greater than half the corporate’s $900 billion belongings have been invested utilizing environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards in a 2020 annual report. DWS boss Asoka Woehrmann stop the day after the raid in June, and mentioned criticism of the asset supervisor neglected the very fact it will take time to realize its targets, and assembly sustainability targets was not a linear journey. The case is ongoing.
Japan: Slicing coal emisssions with ammonia
A coal plant in Japan. Picture: Piqsels, CC0 1.0 by way of Piqsels
A plan unveiled by the Japanese authorities to spend ¥27.9bn (US$242 million) on subsidies for 2 pilot tasks that purpose to burn a minimum of 50 per cent hydrogen-derived ammonia with coal at energy vegetation by 2029 was questioned by hydrogen consultants who challenged the plan for successfully decreasing emissions. Ammonia combustion doesn’t produce carbon dioxide however does emit nitrous oxide, a strong local weather agitant.
“The Japanese are clearly in serious trouble in a decarbonised future and they’re desperately greedy at straws to resolve their power import issues – however ammonia? It’ll be a minimum of 5 occasions the price, per joule, of the power their financial opponents use to gasoline their economies,” wrote Paul Martin, co-founder of the Hydrogen Science Coalition, in a LinkedIn submit. “Using ammonia as a gasoline is feasible, however for stationary purposes like energy vegetation for use greater than often as an emergency backup gasoline, it’s extremely questionable. Feeding it as a co-feed to inefficient coal vegetation? That’s simply loopy,” he mentioned.
Singapore Grand Prix: ‘On monitor’ to decarbonise with no carbon knowledge
Among the many inexperienced claims made by Singapore Grand Prix was that it was encouraging folks to make use of public transport to look at the race. Picture: SGP on Instagram
Inexperienced claims made by the Singapore System One Grand Prix have been questioned for overlooking the monster carbon price of the race. In social media posts, the occasion organiser’s claimed that the Singapore Grand Prix is “on monitor to minimising our carbon footprint” by digitising tickets, trialling LED monitor lights and utilizing carbon impartial power to energy the occasion venue. SGP additionally mentioned they’re “encouraging inexperienced transportation” by informing punters which subway stations are nearest to the venue. However SGP supplied no info on the precise carbon footprint of the occasion, which they’ve but to measure.
Ho Xiang Tian, co-founder of environmental group LepakInSG, mentioned the occasion’s inexperienced credentials have been being promoted with out acknowledgement of the broader local weather influence of the race, which he mentioned was greenwashing.
Australia: Conserving a reef whereas backing coral-bleaching fossil fuels
Reef washing? An Australian authorities plan to guard the Nice Barrier Reef was referred to as out by Greenpeace for ignoring the necessity to cut back reef-wrecking emissions. Picture: Greenpeace
A marketing campaign by Greenpeace mentioned {that a} AU$1 billion (US$668 million) plan introduced by Australia’s earlier Scott Morrison-led authorities to preserve the Nice Barrier Reef greenwashed the nation’s large investments within the fossil gasoline sector. The funding “intentionally omits” a single greenback to repair the reef’s best menace, local weather change, the group mentioned.
“It’s arduous to view this as something apart from the most recent ploy to tug the wool over our eyes. Certain, the announcement may SOUND good, nevertheless it means nothing when his authorities continues its rampant pro-fossil gasoline agenda,” mentioned Greenpeace in a mailer interesting to its supporters to signal a petition in protest. “It may be the world’s most costly band–help,” it mentioned. In recent times, the Australian authorities has lobbied to make sure the Nice Barrier Reef was omitted from a report on UNESCO World Heritage websites threatened by local weather change, Greenpeace mentioned.
Worldwide Girls’s Day hypocrisy police
Picture: Gender Pay Gap Bot on Twitter
In 2017, the British authorities made it necessary for companies with 250 staff or extra to report the distinction in earnings between their female and male employees. This knowledge was utilized by the Gender Pay Gap Bot, a guerilla Twitter bot, to quote-tweet firms’ loud-and-proud Worldwide Girls’s Day posts with the companies’ precise gender pay hole knowledge. The bot revealed the massive pay hole disparity that continues to exist even amongst gender equality champions. Some companies deleted their posts to keep away from criticism, however one Twitter user collated the entire submit removals, which was retweeted hundreds of occasions.
Boohoo: Sustainability lip-service with the Kardashians
Kourtney Kardashian was appointed sustainability ambassador by fast-fashion retailer Boohoo. Picture: Yahoo Information
UK-based fast-fashion on-line retailer Boohoo employed TV celeb Kourtney Kardashian because the model’s sustainability ambassador for New York Vogue Week, and launched a “inexperienced” assortment. This didn’t go down properly amongst trend sustainability aficionados.
“One other day, one other bout of greenwashing from one of many world’s largest extremely fast-fashion manufacturers — Boohoo,” wrote Susannah Jaffer, founder and CEO of Zerrin, a Singapore-based sustainable trend portal, on LinkedIn. “Any sustainability marketing campaign or collaboration by a trend model that’s tone deaf to the truth and influence of their provide chain is greenwashing. Interval.”
Zerrin identified that the recycled polyester and recycled cotton promoted by Boohoo as sustainable are nonetheless tough to recycle and break down. “To not point out that the manufacturing of this assortment doesn’t do a factor to compensate for Boohoo’s output of hundreds of things a month, nonetheless created from low cost, artificial, petroleum-based supplies,” she mentioned.
“Essentially the most sustainable, eco-friendly factor that Kourtney might have achieved would have been to say ‘no’. However cash talks,” she mentioned.
KLM: Fly responsibly with us
KLM’s fly responsibly marketing campaign misleads customers, claims activist regulation agency ClientEarth. Picture: Fly responsibly marketing campaign
Activist regulation agency ClientEarth sued Dutch airline KLM in Might over an promoting marketing campaign its says offers a misunderstanding of the sustainability of its flights and its plans to cut back its local weather influence. KLM’s “fly responsibly” marketing campaign claimed the airline it’s on track to succeed in net-zero emissions by 2050, and that it plans to make use of sustainable gasoline and electrical planes from 2035. However ClientEarth says KLM is breaking European shopper regulation by deceptive customers, because the aviation trade can’t decarbonise with out scaling again the frequency of air journey. “KLM’s advertising and marketing misleads customers into believing that its flights gained’t worsen the local weather emergency. However it is a delusion,” mentioned Hiske Arts, a campaigner for Fossielvrij NL, the Dutch non-profit that ClientEarth is representing.
WWF: Burning plastic is clear
A picture utilized in a mailer from WWF-Singapore to advertise its seaside clean-ups. Picture: WWF-Singapore
In an e-mail despatched to its supporters in September, conservation group WWF-Singapore mentioned that the plastic trash collected on its seaside clean-ups can be despatched to an area college and transformed into “clear power” after going via a course of referred to as pyrolysis – waste is heated up and changed into pyrolytic oil. The mailer additionally promoted WWF’s restricted version ‘Pink Panda Assortment’ of tote baggage, reusable drink containers and t-shirts.
Yobel Novian Putra, Indonesia-based local weather and clear power marketing campaign officer for non-profit World Alliance for Incinerator Alternate options, argued that there is no such thing as a such factor as clear power generated from burning a pollutive, poisonous materials like plastic. “Saying that power from the pyrolysis of plastic waste is clear is similar factor as saying that the power from waste-to-energy vegetation in Singapore is clear. In each instances, we’re utilizing fossil-based supplies to generate power,” he advised Eco-Enterprise.
Have we missed any? Most likely. Tell us by writing to [email protected]. This story is a part of our Yr in Evaluate sequence, which journals the tales that formed the world of sustainability in 2022.
