How Much Greenwashing of Products is Healthcare Experiencing?

By Mary Starr

A recent survey conducted by the Greenhealth Exchange (GX) and Healthcare Purchasing News (HPN) shows that just the definition of “greenwashing” is not consistent among healthcare supply chain professionals.

The data indicates that most respondents don’t think Greenwashing is much of a problem as shown below.

However, if we look at just those that were able to identify the correct definition in the question How do you define greenwashing”, then the problem appears more significant;

We found this information noteworthy and believe that it suggests that healthcare supply chain professionals rely heavily on the information that suppliers provide to them as it relates to a product’s sustainability features/benefits. This may be fine in some cases, if the supplier is being transparent and truthful about the benefits and risks associated with the product’s sustainability attributes. On the other hand, as consumers, we know that it is the buyer’s responsibility to understand a product’s features/benefits and related fine print.

For healthcare supply chain professionals, being experts in products from both the clinical/efficacy and sustainability standpoint is a daunting expectation. Especially given the pressures they face every day around hitting large savings goals and ensuring products are ordered, received and delivered on time throughout their network of healthcare facilities. As a result, sustainability features of a particular product can be brushed aside. Not for lack of desire to understand and use the better alternative, but because the process of identifying the truly better alternative can require significant research, with limited data readily available. Thus, supply chain professionals rely heavily on a suppliers’ claims of product’s sustainability features.

This conundrum can be rectified, but not without efforts by the healthcare supply chain industry as a whole. Market demand is critical to changing supplier behavior. And clear, accurate and reliable labels will only be seen with widespread consistency, when market share is lost to those that don’t provide it. When customers move to those products that are truly more sustainable, then manufacturers will respond. Until then, “green” is in the eye of the labeler.

For more information and insight in to the survey results, the Healthcare Purchasing News article can be found here.