How to Spot Greenwashing: A Sustainable Baddie’s Guide
As a sustainable baddie, you may already be familiar with the sustainability buzzword “Greenwashing”. Greenwashing is defined as the “practice of making a product, policy, activity, etc. appear to be more environmentally friendly or less environmentally damaging than it is.” In the fashion industry, we see it often applied by brands as a marketing tool to promote their products under the guise of being eco-friendly. As sustainable baddies begin to make up a larger portion of the consumer base, our purchasing power matters to companies across markets. They know that what we care about is keeping our planet happy and healthy. However, they underestimate our expert critical thinking skills. If you are a sustainable baddie, now is the time to enter your susty investigative baddie era. Put your thinking cap on and follow along as we explore some common greenwashing tactics used in the fashion industry today. You will never be seduced by greenwashing again!
Why do we care?
So, what’s the big idea? Why should we pay attention to greenwashing? On one level, greenwashing reflects a global trend toward caring about the environment, which kind of rocks. As collective consumers, the market recognizes that we are more interested in and inclined to purchase environmentally friendly products. However, instead of changing the production process of their products, brands have found ways to appear eco-friendly in order to influence our buying habits. As conscious consumers, many of us choose to look deeper into brands’ environmental impact. However, greenwashing can mislead us, making it easier to make poor choices.
What does Greenwashing look like?
As we work hard to detect greenwashing everywhere we can, we thought it might be helpful to look at some common examples of greenwashing that we encounter daily.
One of the more familiar and popular examples of greenwashing in fast fashion comes from H&M’s Conscious Collection. Like all great detectives, we start by being curious. Clearly, the attractive sea moss green-colored tag catches your eye, and then the buzzwords suck you in. However, we like to interrogate the meaning behind these buzzwords.
Can we even measure the term conscious?
The word “conscious” evokes a specific sensation within us. It activates the part of us that wants to be a better person, to put positive energy into the universe. But what does being conscious mean, and is it possible to assess H&M’s “consciousness” without a clear definition of the term? By using a nebulous term that has no tangible boundaries, multiple definitions, and is emotionally engaging, H&M creates the illusion of a consumer experience that is helping the environment, when, in reality, we have no proof of that. In fact, when we put our greenwashing investigator hats on, we will find that H&M’s Conscious Collection has actually produced more waste when compared to average production metrics instead of less.
Research reports performed by universities, publicly funded environmental organizations, environmental NGOs, and other entities designed for industry compliance or accountability can illuminate the truth and dissuade us from making uninformed purchases. Consulting multiple sources can expose common patterns as well.
Other popular brands are doing similar things. For example, you may have previously shopped ASOS’s Responsible Edit, which has now disappeared from their site.
ASOS was under investigation for their sustainability claims over the summer of 2022, and just before the investigation began, their edit disappeared from the site. Similar to the branding used in H&M’s Conscious Collection, many of the terms used to describe ASOS’s responsible edit were too vague to measure their accuracy making it hard for consumers to know if what they are shopping for is truly sustainable or not. The investigation by The Competition and Market Authority encouraged brands, including ASOS, to follow the CMA Green Claims Code so that we, as consumers, can make confident, informed decisions on the products that we purchase.
We’re glad that popular brands are being held accountable by government organizations like the CMA. We as consumers can use our purchasing power and critical thinking skills to encourage more of these brands to change their production processes too. Being curious and skeptical when shopping from any brand (not just fashion), reminds the brands of what is important to us: transparency and honesty.
What do we do now?
Now that we have outlined the basics of Greenwashing and some common examples, let’s discuss what to do next. Don’t go shopping without your Greenwashing Investigator hat nearby. And once you get to the store, here are some things to consider:
Color – we all love earth tones and pretty deep greens and blues. However, color choice is not a good way to measure a brand's sustainability efforts. Just because it looks like the earth, doesn’t mean it cares about Her. When you spot greens or cardboard browns on tags, ads, and other branding materials, it might be the first sign to dig a little deeper.
Words – word choice is probably the most common form of greenwashing, as we saw with H&M and ASOS. Food brands, cleaning brands, clothing brands, and more love throwing around words that have eco-friendly connotations. Terms like “natural”, “conscious”, “ethical”, “responsible”, and “sustainable” are not controlled and therefore are used at the discretion of the brand without any oversight. When a brand is throwing around buzzwords like this, it does not mean for certain that they are greenwashing, but it is a sign to clarify what these words mean to them. From a marketing perspective, it’s easy to use buzzwords; even branding teams are susceptible to them. But as consumers, we have to know how we personally define these words and demand that brands both small and large align with our values before we buy.
Packaging – Eco-friendly packaging rocks. If a brand is using recycled or plastic-free packaging, we are all for it. However, if that is all they do, it isn’t enough. It is a sign that they are taking steps toward a more sustainable production process, but it doesn’t outweigh the large amounts of waste and carbon emissions that they may still be producing in mass... As consumers, we can ask them to do better than just recycle their packaging.
Doing the Bare Minimum – Many brands will promote or advertise their clean production efforts without the necessary context. Although we know that most major governments can be doing a lot more for sustainable regulations on businesses, there are still laws that have been implemented all over the world. Some businesses may act like these regulations are subjective, or nuisances to work around strategically. Others may argue that the choice to be sustainable is their own independent decision. Since we know that government regulations are currently not doing enough, brands and corporations should actually be doing more than simply what is required by law. Look for brands that are surpassing what is being asked of them — we want above-and-beyond behavior.
Credit: Nickelodeon
When shopping new, being thoughtful is important, and we like to check out resources like Good On You to see if the brand has a sustainability rating that we feel good supporting. That being said, we are still left to wonder, can there be ethical consumption under capitalism?
The single best way to avoid greenwashing is to stop buying new. Sustainable baddie behavior like mending or making our own clothes, thrifting, swapping, and hand-me-down-ing are still the best practices when it comes to curating our wardrobes.
By avoiding shopping for new clothes (or things), we can feel more at peace with our purchasing behavior. As a sustainable baddie and a sustainable investigator, trust your instincts when detecting greenwashing. With a little extra critical thinking and research, you have all the tools you need to suss out that greenwashing behavior and make your own confident consumer choices. When in doubt, leave it behind and thrift it instead!