Greenwashing

The green movement is becoming more and more popular in the past few years. Noticeable rising temperatures have sparked awareness in people that waste is bad and could be in fact destroying the Earth which is out home and very much needed to continue living. Lately, it has become more popular to recycle, but better yet, it is more popular to use “green” products. Companies have started to use this newfound interest in the environment as a way to change their product to become better for the world. For example, water bottles now use less plastic than before to be more “green”, hybrid cars are designed to work more on electricity instead of gas so less fumes are emitted. While these products could be helpful with cutting down on the damage we humans put on the Earth with the amount of pollution caused daily, the green movement has initiated some deceptive advertising; big surprise there.
Greenwashing, or “green sheen” is “a form of spin in which green PR or green marketing is deceptively used to promote the perception that an organization’s aim and policies are environmentally friendly.” It is a manipulative form of advertisement to make buyers believe a company’s objective is different from reality and it is becoming more and more popular. The term started in 1986 with an environmentalist named Jay Westervelt who wrote an essay about hotels that practice making cards in hotel rooms encouraging customers to be environmentally friendly and reuse towels. He then noted that these institutions weren’t living up to reputation they gave themselves and didn’t actually make the effort to be as environmentally friendly as it the cards made it seem. Another example of this form of deception is a case in California against Roll International Corporation and Fiji Water Company LLC. It was claimed that the bottled water was “environmentally friendly and superior”. This statement was challenged and it was found that not only was the manufacturing, distribution and packaging of