Is your company guilty of greenwashing?

The term greenwashing refers to when an organization has communicated an environmentally positive aim, policy, message or commitment, without the ability to demonstrate or prove that they are effecting positive change towards the environment.

Picture a beautiful meadow, with children skipping hand in hand, butterflies and songbirds in the background with a perfect ray of sunshine framing the image. Then overlaid on top add an environmentally conscious message to reflect an organization’s commitments and practices as a responsible environmental steward. It’s a great feel-good moment.

However, when the same organization is asked to prove its promise, they lack the objective evidence needed to stand up to external stakeholders and broader industry scrutiny, which then leads to another organization being called out for greenwashing.

Unfortunately, there have been many examples of greenwashing over the years.

There are several drivers behind the need to tackle greenwashing. From the finance industry responding to stakeholder pressure to invest in more sustainable practices and divest themselves from unsustainable industries to consumer pressure for greater levels of trust and transparency from organizations regarding the environmental impact of the goods and services they purchase, to the ever-changing regulatory landscape for better environmental practices and controls. 

The pressure on organizations to reduce their impacts on the environment has never been greater than it is today. And the pressure will only increase moving forward, whether it is financial, consumer-driven or legally enforced. From an economic sustainability perspective, consider that over 67% of consumers globally consider environmental sustainability as an important purchasing condition when making decisions on where their money is spent.

In a recent survey conducted by the Harris Poll for Google Cloud, of nearly 1,500 CEOs and other C-suite leaders around the world, 58% admitted that their companies were guilty of greenwashing; among leaders in the U.S., that figure rose to 68%. 

From the same survey, 65% of CEOs and C-suite leaders said that while they wanted to make progress on sustainability efforts, they did not actually know how to do that. They understand the topic and why they need to change, but they are stuck on how to effect positive change towards their impact on the environment, and how to prove these efforts to their customers.

How would you, reading this blog, prove that you were qualified to drive a vehicle? What would you present to the interested party? Of course, the answer is a driver’s license, which you received by using a safe driving instruction manual, which was presented to you by a trusted and independent third party. 

In 2020, Statista, the market and consumer data organization, reported that the number of registered businesses globally, across all industry sectors, was 213.65 million. Another survey published in 2020, by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), showed the number of ISO certificates issued per standard by country and industry sector. In that ISO survey was a breakdown that showed only 417,478 organizations from every industry sector, a minuscule 0.2%, currently use ISO 14001, the globally recognized environmental risk management standard, to manage and improve their impact on the environment. 

However, I’m confident that the majority of registered organizations all have some form of environmental policy, green claim, goal or statement. The CEOs who lead the 0.2% of organizations using ISO 14001 to prove their green promise do not have this issue, as they are already managing their environmental risks and impacts through the standard. 

Is there more these organizations can do to improve their performance and credentials, and save money and resources beyond ISO 14001? Of course, this is another important benefit of the effective use of standards, as it is not about meeting a certain requirement then stopping; it is about continuous and ongoing improvement.

The short answer is to empower their people, from the frontlines to the marketing team, by using these globally recognized how-to guides, in the form of various ISO standards, to align their organizations with a clear and harmonized approach to effecting positive change. No matter which area of environmental sustainability they are focusing on, the essential foundation begins by using ISO 14001 to manage and improve their site risks and impacts, which in turn directly contributes toward 12 of the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

There is no shortage of ‘how to’ guides available to support sustainability initiatives, from quantification, reporting and reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions using ISO 14064, improving recycling rates by designing in material circulation using ISO 14009, and improving the use of energy with ISO 50001. Much like a driver’s licence, these ‘how to’ guides provide the organization, and any interested parties, with the independently validated and verified objective evidence to prove their promise as a trusted and responsible environmental steward.

This verified evidence enables your teams to go to market in a trusted and transparent way. No greenwashing needed.

A BSI subject matter expert on the topic of sustainability, Neil Coole has more than 24 years of experience working in standards development, testing, inspection and certification. As Director – Food & Retail Sector at BSI, he’s passionate about leveraging standards to effect positive change by helping organizations embed sustainable practices – empowering their suppliers to prove their promise towards their ESG goals and commitments.