Authentic Sustainability: The Gap Between Claims and Action
Article written by Lauren Garcia
You go to the grocery store and you need to buy laundry detergent. You can buy your usual Tide detergent but then a new detergent catches your eye. It claims to be packaged in biodegradable materials and made of non-toxic and natural ingredients. It’s slightly expensive than what you usually pay for, but if it’s helping the environment, it’s surely worth the cost! Right?
Green Marketing
It’s everywhere in the market. Terms like “organic”, “eco-friendly”, “recyclable”, or “sustainable” are used to label all kinds of products in the market such as food and skincare. These kinds of labels and similar marketing strategies are called green marketing, which is the term for when brands highlight the environmental benefits of their products and illustrate their missions and practices to be environmentally driven. The goals of green marketing are to implement sustainable business practices, demonstrate social responsibility, reduce expenses (packaging, energy, water usage, etc.), and display safe and mindful products/services.
Further means of practicing green marketing are when brands advertise their green messages to the public (TV, radio, billboards, etc.) to educate potential customers about their mission and their ways to protect the environment and why it matters. Businesses may also partner with charities or organizations that have similar goals to them. For example, TOMS works with non-governmental, international humanitarian and social enterprise organizations to fulfill their famous promise of giving a pair of shoes to a poor country for every pair of TOMS shoes that is purchased.
Green Washing
As customers and consumers, it feels great to support such brands that focus on environmental action and not just their revenue! Sadly, many businesses often twist their green marketing strategies and instead, greenwash their products/services. Greenwashing is when a company misleads its customers about the environmental impact of its products or practices. Sustainable Brands — a community that engages business leaders and practitioners to overcome social and environmental challenges of their brand for a positive impact — found that out of 4,744 products that were labeled “green” in the USA and Canada, 95% were guilty of greenwashing. There are companies who do this to meet the demand of being environmentally friendly but at a cheaper cost by claiming without living up to the claims.
For instance, Fiji Water publicizes itself to be, “Earth’s finest water. Bottled at the source. Untouched by man,” as seen on their website and in their commercials. In addition, with every Fiji Water bottle that is bought, buyers are informed that they’ve helped reduce carbon emissions and protect Fijian rainforests. However, it’s ironic that the company states those supposed environmental impacts when Fiji Water is still bottled in plastic packaging which takes years to degrade and adds to the production of carbon emissions. It only takes the production of one ounce of polyethylene (PET) to emit one ounce of carbon dioxide, one of the most abundant greenhouse gases on Earth.
Other ways of greenwashing are when stickers, symbols or logos that represent “certification” are used for validation, when they can be fake. Another way is when businesses label their products to include so-called “natural” ingredients. Though that may be printed on the packaging, only a small percentage of the ingredient is actually part of the product. In reality, harmful toxins and chemicals make up the overall product.
Authentic Sustainability
What makes a business authentically sustainable is when the environment has an equal weight of priority among other business goals. A truly sustainable business has a relationship with its products through the use of materials and methods of production/service that have little to no environmental damage. With the term “authentic”, businesses are to be transparent through proofs like specific and verifiable claims and reports on reaching sustainable goals that will gain the trust of customers. It doesn’t stop from just being green, but a business must always look for ways of improving, mastering, and expanding sustainability practices.
A good example of such business is Human Nature, a local Philippine brand known for its affordable, eco-friendly, and ethically made beauty products. The vision of this business is to produce high-quality, Philippine-made natural products that would restore productivity to the land and impoverished communities. Examples of the raw materials used in the business are citronella, coconut oil and lemongrass at above-market prices from rural low-income communities which provides those communities with livelihood training, farming and processing equipment. Their Natural Care Labs thoroughly research all their raw materials to ensure that they are naturally derived, biodegradable, are not processed using environmentally toxic processes and are not harmful to our ecosystems when released into the environment after the product is finished or washed off while maintaining a quality product that’s safe and effective on the skin. A recent addition to the business is that customers are encouraged to bring back their used Human Nature detergent bottles for refill to promote the practice of reusing containers.
Now what? Do you buy that new laundry detergent or just stick to your regular Tide? Before adding the product to your shopping cart, carefully read the ingredients and check the label. How much of the natural ingredients are there? Is the packaging truly recyclable? If there are terms that you don’t understand, you can easily search for them on the Internet. While you’re at it, you can look for the brand’s mission and sustainability practices. If you’re still undecided, a number of online reviews on “green” products can be easily found because many consumers nowadays trust each other rather than the statements of brands. People have the power to inform others of true sustainability. We can inspire brands to be transparent with their customers and consumers so that they can gain trust and brand loyalty. Brands can choose to greenwash all they want, but it’s ultimately up to the consumers to determine whether such brands are worth tolerating.
Sources:
https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-link-between-plastic-use-and-climate-change-nitty-gritty
https://humanheartnature.com/buy/our-story
http://humanheartnature.com/PR0610_socialenterprise.html
https://learn.g2.com/green-marketing
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/waste-and-recycling
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/08/20/why-sustainable-branding-matters/#7b982f065b6e
https://medium.com/@wodenworks/transparency-makes-a-brand-sustainable-851ff1132893
https://www.warc.com/newsandopinion/news/mindful_consumers_expect_brand_sustainability/41085
https://blog.consumeraffairs.com/why-consumers-trust-each-other-more-than-brands-908a440ed8d7/
