‘Gimme Some Truth’: Greenwashing vs Sustainability | The Green Economy Post: Green Careers, Green Business, Sustainability

‘Gimme Some Truth’: Greenwashing vs Sustainability | The Green Economy Post: Green Careers, Green Business, Sustainability

Green washing – making exaggerated environmental claims in order to curry consumer favor is one of the banes of the sustainability community. When a company that has been lauded for its environmental performance is revealed to be engaging in environmentally dangerous practices it provide skeptics with the fodder they need. Even when the claims are found to be inflated (or impossible to substantiate), credibility is lost. For a business model based on the paradigm that transparency leads to credibility, trust and ultimately market advantage, these incidents can be devastating.

For some companies the desire to appeal to ‘green’ consumers and to be perceived as a good corporate citizen is enough to encourage deliberately deceptive claims. These companies deserve the criticism and derision not only for their direct attempts to dupe the public, but also because they discredit the efforts of other, more responsible companies that are making credible efforts and achieving measureable results.
Despite the perception, however, most companies do in fact embed ‘green’ practices within day to day operations and initiatives; therefore, on average, the primary causes for green washing has nothing to do with malfeasance or bad intent. They have to do with the fact that more often we see a fragmented approach to rolling out projects or activities – where one department may be donating towards reforestation while another is measuring energy consumptions and verifying their carbon footprint. Both initiatives are green, but do they reflect the core business? Is there substantial reasoning behind why these two departments have taken on these specific activities, and why they are completely independent of each other? How is this reasoning being justified and measured against the financial and non-financial performances of the organization?
The old adage in business – that which is measured gets done – implies the converse as well; that things that are not measured (or are not measured well) often are prioritized lower. This can create a negative feedback loop which certainly has too often been the case for Sustainability.

The Importance of Sustainability
How Sustainability is embedded within an organization influences the degree to which it is perceived as a good corporate citizen or green business. How do we embed Sustainability then? The first step is an understanding of what Sustainability is!

Sustainability is a form of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (1987, World Commission on Environment and Development). Successively, it is about identifying what it means for your organization strategically, outlining performance measures that will indicate levels of success in aligning strategy with Sustainability, and designing transparent communications channels to talk about achievements.

Bottom line… Sustainability is an honest attempt to create positive social, environmental, and economic impacts through transparent organizational performance measures and communications