...Marketing Management 555 Assessment 1 Greenwashing Ursula Dixon Student 15413677 Greenwashing Executive Summary The purpose of this report is to outline the term ‘Greenwashing’, describe the effect of the practice of corporate greenwashing on consumer confidence and how in the long term this will affect the environment. Greenwashing is the systematic deception of the buying public about the ‘greenness’ of a product or service. It is a deeper issue than a logo on a product label. A logo is a symptom of the amount of environmentally friendly embellishment given to a product, which when discovered by the consumer as misleading or untruthful (Readfeam 2012), is leading to the slow eroding of confidence in the assertions made by manufacturers, service providers and the advertising agencies that represent them. As consumers are becoming more aware of effective sustainability practices, they are suffering from a loss of confidence in the marketing spin; and the environment is feeling the impact of the lack of sustainability in the manufacture of the product and/or service. Government engagement on a global level is necessary and required to see the consequences of false and misleading advertising become a deterrent to greenwashing. The consequence must outweigh the products potential revenue and the legal bodies adjudicating these outcomes must have the necessary ‘teeth’ to take the argument all the way through the court system. Effective benchmarking of...
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...Greenwashing According to Paetzold,(2010) greenwashing can be described as when you are trying to convince people that you are doing something good for the environment by being involved in small environmentally friendly initiatives, which in some cases can be used to hide environmental damage you may be causing. In this essay I will extend on greenwashing, supporting the definition. I will explain the reason a company may commit greenwashing, using a lot of TerraChoices’ ideas about greenwashing for support. I will also analyse the different forms (the sins) of greenwashing, supporting these ideas with examples of some of these sins being committed by various companies. Concluding the main body of my essay I will include some various ways greenwashing is attempting to be addressed, in particular by the federal trade commission with the green guide. According to TerraChoice (2010) there was a growth of 79% between 2008 and 2009 green products. With green marketing increasing, greenwashing is also increasing. Lane (2013, p.168) states greenwashing can be described as making false or misleading claims regarding purportedly friendly products, services or practices. As a result to the increase in knowledge of climate change and a range of other environmental issues consumers demand that products are more environmentally friendly and are sustainable. This has led to the increase of businesses to engage in greenwashing, or falsely advertising their products. The reason that greenwashing...
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...bad and could be in fact destroying the Earth which is out home and very much needed to continue living. Lately, it has become more popular to recycle, but better yet, it is more popular to use “green” products. Companies have started to use this newfound interest in the environment as a way to change their product to become better for the world. For example, water bottles now use less plastic than before to be more “green”, hybrid cars are designed to work more on electricity instead of gas so less fumes are emitted. While these products could be helpful with cutting down on the damage we humans put on the Earth with the amount of pollution caused daily, the green movement has initiated some deceptive advertising; big surprise there. Greenwashing, or “green sheen” is “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s aim and policies are environmentally friendly.” It is a manipulative form of advertisement to make buyers believe a company’s objective is different from reality and it is becoming more and more popular. The term started in 1986 with an environmentalist named Jay Westervelt who wrote an essay about hotels that practice making cards in hotel rooms encouraging customers to be environmentally friendly and reuse towels. He then noted that these institutions weren’t living up to reputation they gave themselves and didn’t actually make the effort to be as environmentally friendly as it the cards made...
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...bad and could be in fact destroying the Earth which is out home and very much needed to continue living. Lately, it has become more popular to recycle, but better yet, it is more popular to use “green” products. Companies have started to use this newfound interest in the environment as a way to change their product to become better for the world. For example, water bottles now use less plastic than before to be more “green”, hybrid cars are designed to work more on electricity instead of gas so less fumes are emitted. While these products could be helpful with cutting down on the damage we humans put on the Earth with the amount of pollution caused daily, the green movement has initiated some deceptive advertising; big surprise there. Greenwashing, or “green sheen” is “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s aim and policies are environmentally friendly.” It is a manipulative form of advertisement to make buyers believe a company’s objective is different from reality and it is becoming more and more popular. The term started in 1986 with an environmentalist named Jay Westervelt who wrote an essay about hotels that practice making cards in hotel rooms encouraging customers to be environmentally friendly and reuse towels. He then noted that these institutions weren’t living up to reputation they gave themselves and didn’t actually make the effort to be as environmentally friendly as it the cards made...
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...companies is fiercer than ever, and customers have been concerned about environmental issues, so many organizations devote themselves to attract customers via promoting green products and services. As a result, green products as well as greenwashing products, which are labeled as eco-friendly while actually they are not, have inundated the marketplace in modern society. However, some companies overstate their environmental claims so that customers have difficulty in distinguishing real eco-friendly products from greenwashing ones. This essay will show the reasons for greenwashing problems and discuss Chevron’s (one of the world’s largest integrated energy companies) marketing strategies, which hides its destructive environmental records behind eco-friendly rhetoric and advertising campaigns. There are four main reasons that greenwashing has become a problem in recent years. Firstly, greenwashing activities help to attract customers so that profits can be remarkably increased (Berkeley Media Studies Group 2008, p.20). According to Solman (2008, p.24), British Petroleum (BP), a well-known oil company, profited from the rebranding effort as the corporation changed its name to Beyond Petroleum which can be associated with nature. Meanwhile, greenwashing can help to improve a company’s reputation (Solman 2008, pp.22-23). For example, Solman (2008, pp.22-23) states that BP launched a series of campaigns, hoping that customers would reappraise the company. As a result, Business Week, a...
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...Responsibility Every Drop is… Greenwashing In a society that is increasingly aware of its own negative impact on the environment, it is not rare to see more and more corporations becoming green or environmentally friendly. Nowadays, corporations must have a “greener” mission and be working towards making the world a better place in order to have a competitive advantage and to gain customer loyalty. But how do we know if a company is really becoming more responsible or if it is just a scam to attract more customers and make more profit? This is when the term greenwashing comes into play; when corporations mislead customers to believe that their operations are responsible, when they actually are not. Throughout this paper the greenwashing case by the internationally known artesian bottled water maker: FIJI Water will be embarked as well as the principles proposed by Jeffrey Hollender in his book “The Responsibility Revolution”, that claims that by following them, corporations can become more responsible. The Oxford Dictionary defines the term greenwash as any “disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image”. When a corporation spends more time and money in trying to make their activities look good for they environment than actually implementing the practices to become “greener”, it is said that the corporation is involved in greenwashing ("About Greenwashing"). Now more than ever, greenwashing has become a rising problem...
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...Fiji Water: Green makeover or Greenwashing Fiji Water is one of the famous bottle water in current global market. With its special characters and higher market target, Fiji Water has a good performance in the bottle water market, and has a high market share. Recent years, environmentalists appeal all industries to offset their carbon footprint to reduce the influence of greenhouse effect. Fiji Water also planed some steps to reduce their carbon footprint. The background of the success of FIJI Water In the early nineties, David Gilmour, the Canadian-born owner developed the “Fiji water” concept. The concept was to bottle Fiji natural water and market if all around the world as a unique and exotic product. The most important aspect of this product was that the water will get straight from the source which was old artesian aquifer water. This water was silica-rich and used to anti-aging and immunity-boosting properties. So, it was expected to appeal to health-conscious and image-oriented consumers. In 1996, Natural Waters of Viti Ltd. Built its first bottling plant at the cost of FJ$48 million at Yaqara in Ra, at the place where the source of artesian water had been found. With the underdeveloped rural area of the island, the unpolluted, pristine location of the water source and factory guaranteed the purity of the artesian water (1). In 1997 Fiji Water was first launched in California. In 1998, the company entered New York market. With increase of the demand of the bottle water in America...
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...related issues are topics that won’t be going away anytime soon.” (Schulz, 2015) Renewable energy, recycled products and storing data are ways that a business can reduce its carbon footprint The question that needs to be asked is a business green washing their data or products to make it seem like they are environmental friendly. Carbon Footprint In week four my team and I did research and had a discussion over a video we watched on the importance of measuring enterprise impact. “Green washing is a form of marketing spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization's aims and policies are environmentally friendly. Whether it is to increase profits or gain political support, greenwashing may be used to manipulate popular opinion to support otherwise questionable aims.” (Grant, 2013) The first conclusions we came to was none of us knew that data usage could be bad for the environment and that many companies can claim they use less data. Any company can manipulate a data report or product packaging to meet the standards that are needed to increase profit or gain investors. “The same survey found that “80 percent [of consumers] would choose a product if its packaging featured specific data detailing, for instance, how much plastic was saved over an earlier version” (emphasis ours). That’s right, having specific environmental data...
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...Understanding Sustainability We describe sustainability as doing business in a manner that contributes meaningfully to a healthy environment, to strong communities, and to economic prosperity, now and in the future. It can be measured in three ways, economically, environmentally, and socially. Companies economically sustainable have strong codes of conduct, willing to comply with government regulations and set timely and effective management policies. Companies who are environmentally sustainable focuses on ecologically reasoning such as reducing the percentage of pollution based on their consumption. A company that’s socially sustainable cares about the community in which it operates and engages itself in many humanitarian causes. More companies are pulling to be fully sustainable and cover all these measures to ensure they have great ethics. Can it be profitable? Many people wonder how companies maintain profit while being sustainable. Though being socially responsible doesn’t mean that these companies are losing profit. Instead CEOs of these companies realize that the value of their company increases due to identifying and responding to the demands of society. There has also been an increase in SRI, socially responsible investing. Even now companies can’t afford to not be social responsible with scandals or negative publicity. Companies strive to be cost effective using strategic planning whiel still maintaining to be sustainability, but many times this is masked by profit...
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...cause-related marketing, cause-brand failure, and decision-making. The previously stated objectives will be covered by exploring the topics of “Pinkwashing”, Brand Implications, and Conflicting views on Association as they relate to this alliance and its qualitative analysis. “Pink-Washing” What is “pinkwashing”? Before exploring this topic, it is relevant to discuss the origin of this word when attempting to better understand it. “Pinkwashing” is a pejorative term derived from “greenwashing” and shares similarities. “Greenwashing” was coined by environmental activists to describe efforts by corporations to portray themselves as environmentally responsible in order to mask environmental wrongdoings (Davis, 1992). The term was originally confined to describing misleading instances of environmental advertising; however, as corporations’ efforts to portray themselves as environmentally righteous have diversified and multiplied, so have charges of “greenwashing”. Ultimately, the core goal of “greenwashing” is to give consumers the impression that the company is taking the...
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...| A CRITICAL PERSPECTIVE ON STRATEGIC CSR AS A TOOL FOR MARKETING AND BRAND DIFFERENTIATION | | | Mattias Norén, Niklas Nygård | 2014-01-16 | | “What are the underlying reasons for abusive Strategic CSR in marketing and brand differentiation, what are the consequences and are there any solutions?” Introduction to CSR For Corporate social responsibility(CSR) a lot of different definitions exists but the one we chose to use in this report was defined by (McWilliams, Siegel och Wright)) as “actions that appear to further some social good, beyond the interests of the firm and that which is required by law”. This definition defines a wide concept that contains everything from corporate environmental strategies, employee empowerment, health and benefit plans for employees and corporate philanthropy. The linking factor between these different implementations is that corporations and businesses should expand their responsibility beyond absolute necessity and their core stakeholders group. While CSR is very modern as a defined concept it is still based on a lot of old ideas. For example many companies in the late 1800s based its business on scientific betterment which often meant that employee benefits was taken a lot further than the requirements of the law (Barley och Kunda). Today CSR has evolved to something more than the initial idea of expanded responsibility and it’s used as a tool for companies to reach goals outside of areas normally connected to CSR...
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...Reginald M. Goosby BUS 221 Writing Assignment “Greenwashing” is the act of misleading the public regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product, service, or business line. Due to the public’s increased awareness of environmental issues, including global warming, deforestation, and the loss of endangered species, “greenwashing” has become a staple of corporations marketing efforts. A majority of America’s largest companies have become part of the “green” movement. The irony of the “green” movement of US companies is that many of the firms that spend the most money and public relations effort trying to show the government, the public, and their shareholders that they are trying to improve the environment are also among the most prolific polluters in the country. Pollution does not mean that the companies are doing anything illegal. Instead, it simply refers to natural consequence of the companies’ industrial efforts which result in contamination to the air, soil or water by the discharge of substances that are toxic to the environment (McIntyre 2006). American Natural Gas Alliance (ANGA) is “greenwashing” the public with its advertising concerning the drilling for natural gas. American Natural Gas Alliance is a trade organization that represents 30 American natural gas drilling and refining companies. These natural gas companies are experiencing a drilling boom with more than a million natural gas wells being drilled across...
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...MANAGEMENT FADS Only novel, not practical HasanKazmi Many organizations are in a constant search for a simple solution that can maximize employee productivity in congruence with greater profits and happy customers. In search for the ‘quick fix’, popular administrative ideas and trends of one organization are embraced religiously by others – becoming a fad. Like fashion trends, fads also have a life cycle where it enjoys a period of fame and subsequently becomes supplanted. To figure out, a characteristic study of 2 fads, old and recent has been conducted that details performance trajectory. MBO – Management by Objective – first outlined by Peter Drucker in his book “The Practice of Management” became popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s. The process outlines setting objectives for the employees so as to get involved in their tasks; achieve targets and deliver the level best performance in a given time frame. MBO received a boost when it was declared to be an integral part of ‘The HP Way’, the widely acclaimed management style of Hewlett-Packard. At every level within Hewlett-Packard, managers had to develop objectives and integrate them with those of other managers and of the company as a whole. This was done by producing written plans showing what people needed to achieve if they were to reach those objectives. The plans were then shared with others in the corporation and coordinated. The widespread adoption and popularity of MBO was because it was antonymous of ‘management...
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...SUSTAINABLE COMMUNICATION Véronique Ferrouillat – Sustainable Communication - 2010 Content Introduction 1. To whom communicate? 2. Why? 3. How? – A – Communicating on SD Communication toolbox per audience – B – Communicating sustainably Véronique Ferrouillat - Sustainable communication – December- 2010 What is sustainable development? Its definition of sustainable development "development which meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs" Extract from the report for the United Nations called ‘Our Common Future’. During the the Brundtland Commission. 1987 Véronique Ferrouillat - Sustainable communication – December- 2010 1 – TO WHOM COMMUNICATE ? 1 – To whom communicate? Companies aren’t alone in the world Secondary stakeholders Environmental and social non-gouvernemental organisations Research institutes/ Universities Affaires & produits Technology prodivers Primary stakeholders Banks, insurance companies, financial analysts Local communities Media Véronique Ferrouillat - Sustainable communication – December- 2010 1 – To whom? Communication target groups External stakeholders • Final consumers • Business clients • Financial stakeholders • Public administrators and policy makers • Civil society and society stakeholders • Suppliers Internal stakeholders • Shareholders • Employees and management Véronique Ferrouillat - Sustainable communication...
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...Green washing in the Commercial Seafood Industry Dave Mangus Milwaukee Area Technical College The subject of my planned report is greenwashing in the seafood industry. Using several articles from the NPR, Earth Island, World Wildlife Foundation, and SeaWeb I plan to convey my opinion on this matter. My basic approach to this topic will be to explain greenwashing, greenmailing, and the view points from the opposition and the rebuttal from the MSC and possibility of the shrimp industry if I can find their responses to the claims. I am reserving the right to add sources to my list as required to provide more examples to support my position. Also I am reserving the right tighten or broaden the focus of this report to keep it manageable. I.E. it could be the overall seafood industry or I may just focus on the MSC and NPR prospective. Another piece to my paper is going to focus on the demand for sustainable certified products and the stress put on the MSC program to supply this demand thru questionable practices of calling it sustainable, when in some cases only the promise to do things better in five to ten years seems to be all that is required for the sticker. I also plan to include the market response to some of the certified sustainable items that don’t pass the common sense test. I also plan to list the MSC guidelines for sustainable fisheries and question how certain things can be certified sustainable by them, when their own guidelines say it isn’t. My intent isn’t...
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