GREENWASHING

Greenwashing

By:Mattia Casarotto Lorenzo Beoni Alessio Coppini

01

What is

Greenwashing?

Greenwashing means a communication or marketing technique pursued by companies, highlighting the positive effects of some initiatives and at the same time trying to conceal the negative environmental impact of others or the enterprise as a whole.

companies using the greenwashing

Eni

McDonald’s

Nestlé

H&M

In 2019 the fast fashion company H&M has expanded its collection with a line of "conscious" clothes, advertised as sustainable because they are produced with organic cotton. This is an example of an omission of information, because, while the company produces some garments with organic cotton, on the other hand it continues to encourage unbridled consumerism and produce clothing at low cost exploiting workers and the environment.

In April 2018 the president of the Nestlé brand affirmed the will of the brand to have a completely recyclable packaging for its products by 2025. All beautiful, except that a 2017 survey by the environmental organization Mighty Earth has revealed that much of the chocolate used to produce Nestlé bars comes from illegal cultivation within national parks in Ivory Coast and Ghana. Clearly Nestlé is not as environmentally conscious as she would have you believe.

The American fast-food giant, to approach consumers more sensitive to environmental issues, has changed the color of its logo from red to green and has started to open "zero impact" restaurants, which obtain clean energy from solar panels and wind turbines. Too bad that McDonald’s’s flagship product is still beef, from intensive farms, which are among the most polluting industries on the planet and most responsible for climate change.

Even the Italian company Eni has recently spotted greenwashing with its advertising on diesel "green". To say that a highly polluting fossil fuel such as diesel "helps protect the environment through a significant reduction in emissions" is clearly a scam against consumers, which cost the company a fine of five million euros.

thanks for the vision

thanks for watching