Greenwashing, what does it mean?

Ever stayed at a hotel and seen the little sign in the bathroom asking you to keep your towel hung up if you don’t want it washed – because the hotel is trying to save water? So, that was greenwashing. Jay Westerveld the environmentalist first coined the term Greenwashing in the 1980’s and identified scandals that pulled on consumer heart strings who genuinely cared about the environment, including the towel scandal and how it didn’t actually save water or reduce their water consumption but reduces the hotel’s laundry costs.

Knowing that organisations are willing to prey on those individuals who care about the environment and want to try do their bit when they can, means that we need to be very aware of greenwashing.

It is time to educate ourselves on how to spot greenwashing and how to hold organisations accountable to their misleading advertising and false promises.