Greenwashing vs. Eco-authenticity
Going beyond the buzzwords to find genuine climate solutions
“The last best hope for the world”
The annual UN Climate Summit COP26 is here and just about all the media headlines I see read: “COP26 is the last best hope for the world”.
But is it?
There is no denying that time is running out for climate action. Despite the same big powers of the world signing the 2015 Paris Accord, their countries have continued burning fossil fuels and chopping down trees at rates incompatible with the Paris Accord’s goals. The very richest countries, those who are most responsible for polluting the atmosphere, are now experiencing extreme and often deadly consequences caused by extreme weather conditions. As Shikha Bhasin from the Council on Energy, Environment, and Water (CEEW) put it: “Over the last two decades, we’ve gone from facing the climate challenge to living in a state of climate emergency”.
Public distrust for the powers in charge is at an all-time high. Yet, it requires countries, industries, and all the actors of public and private sectors to collaborate and work towards the same goals. I felt helpless when I realized that I am no longer sure that governments and corporations will do the right thing. No matter how much effort we individuals put into playing our parts by changing our behaviors, we still can’t be sure that the changes needed will happen. Adding to the despair, we no longer know what’s the right thing to do, since some corporations use climate change and sustainability as mere public relations stunts to promote products or specific agendas for certain industries.
When I hear words like ESG, SDG, Climate Change — or even Social Impact — as a consumer, I often feel fatigued. Most of the time, these seem to be buzzwords that roll off the tongue without any true intentions to make the necessary changes behind them. In the article “The World Maybe Better Off without ESG Investing” in SSIR (Stanford Social Innovation Review), the author examined the factors behind ESG ratings and found them so inefficient as to say: “The bar for what constitutes a good corporate citizen is abysmally low and may have made ESG investing, arguably the hottest trend in investing today, a greater force for destabilizing society and the planet than if it didn’t exist at all.”
So how do we, as individuals or investors, navigate this complex environment and know what’s genuine and what’s not? I believe, to start with, we need to ask the question of authenticity, and then the question of implementation (or “doing it right”).
Investigating authenticity
It’s important that social impact is not an afterthought or something nice-to-have in a business model. Often, we see products or services donating a small percentage to charities with whom they don’t have meaningful connections. I question the motivation of this symbolic giving unless I can see evidence that the giving is sustainable or they are connected with the cause they are promoting. Incorporating social impact as a key concept in the founding of the organization and having it ingrained into organizational values are also important indicators of authenticity.
Sometimes, business models will promise social impact without really looking into what impact they are truly generating or supporting. Climate change is one of those phrases that can sound empty, since for a business to create true impact a great amount of concerted effort with other actors will need to be made, from prevention to mitigation to advocacy. I came across a proposal about a new algorithm for a new financial system that proceeded with a long narrative about the importance of climate change. Perhaps they are genuinely motivated and, but using buzzwords like climate change without sharing how they intend to help leaves me feeling frustrated. I wish that the writer would have focused on how this new financial system would lay the infrastructure for a system that’s more aligned with sustainability, and how it would have an influence on people within the financial community to support and care about things beyond their finance. Showing knowledge of — and focusing on — real impact shows authenticity.
Investigating how to “do it right”
In the article “There Is No Such Thing as a Green Product”, Trevor Zink and Roland Geyer argue that so-called green products are not reducing environmental impact; in fact, they state that they have a worse impact than other products. Why? In some cases, green products encourage consumption: increased consumption equals increased environmental impact. Instead of purchasing green products, consumers, they recommend, should look for “net green” products. Net green products indicate that the business activity itself is reducing environmental impact. Businesses who make the effort to instill sustainability in every step of the product cycle and business activities can genuinely become part of the solution.
Then there is also story-telling. How businesses tell stories, and who are telling them, are important indicators of motivation and authenticity. Many times, I have seen or attended social impact summits with most of the room with wealthy individuals talking about their own works and congratulating each other. What about, instead of letting the CEOs, Presidents, and celebrities take center stage, what about letting the people who are directly involved with the projects making the social impact tell their stories? Using a business’s media and communication resources to tell real stories from real beneficiaries creates awareness and value for non-profits, and in turn, creates even greater impact and engages more people.
This article has gone from ranting about greenwashing to a guide of how to be a green customer but I think I do have a point somewhere. The point is that achieving social impact is hard work (so let’s not try to make it sound easy). It requires effort for businesses to align their values with that of society, and it also requires efforts for consumers and individuals to see through the noise and be truly engaged. It needs to come from the authentic wish for the planet to be a better place, and not just to feel good about ourselves.
In 2017, when I was working on a Giant Panda conservation project in China, I had an opportunity to visit the Dongtan Natural Reserve on Chongming Island one and a half hours away from the bustling metropolis of Shanghai. Every year, thousands of birds pass by here on their migration route from all over the world. The locals had a special skill, handed down for generations, to catch the birds by whistling. On a good day, they could catch over 100 birds. The bird hunters had captured birds for centuries so that they can sell them for food. But since the 1990s, there have been fewer and fewer birds due to damage to their ecosystem, and the number of birds they were able to catch each day went down to under 20. When the natural reserve was established in 1998, conservation scientists recruited bird hunters and gave them better livelihoods by catching birds for research. Instead of killing birds, they are now vital in catching birds, collecting scientific research data, and tagging them as part of the world conservation network to protect endangered bird species.
I am especially impressed with the way that this initiative used community knowledge and resources rather than introducing some other methods or best practices from the outside. At the same time, individuals are given the opportunity to help the ecosystem and a better living. It’s truly an innovation rooted in the community. Projects like this make me see hope beyond the big powers that are unwilling to take action.
Like these bird hunters turned bird protectors, each of us has a special power or skill that we can turn into action, and help.
Though important, I doubt that COP26 will be humanity’s only last best hope. We don’t have to depend on rich nations and powerful people to solve everything, we can think about our own choices. We might not be engaged in a grand way, but they might still make a difference, one community at a time. Instead of feeling helpless in the face of a great challenge, we can choose to be authentic.
Picture: Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Bird Natural Reserve, photo by Melody Song
