Issues in Tech 1

Cassandra Slack

CST300

December 4, 2017

Greenwashing within Tech Corporations

As society enters a new era of sustainability, tech corporations are finding that the title

“environmentally friendly” can have a positive impact on consumer rates and their corporate

reputation. With the fresh desire to go green and reap the benefits, companies have been caught

stretching the truth and “greenwashing” their practices. The claims that technology corporations

make to be considered environmentally friendly businesses are often left as just that. The term

“eco-friendly” becomes diluted and complex when measuring a company’s authenticity in

relation to a pool of businesses with similar statements and varying behaviors. Leaving

consumers to question which corporations to trust in their claims of green environmental

practices.

This new-found culture that values sustainability across the world has influenced an

increase in interest among consumers to become more conscious of the ways in which their

commodities are produced by corporations. In efforts to satisfy these consumer needs and abide

by eco-related legislation, technology corporations have taken swift measures towards

reconstructing their businesses to create “greener” and more sustainable practices. Thus, creating

the practice of greenwashing. An example of this is General Electric, listed as one of the top 10

greenwashing companies by 24/7 Wall St. 24/7 Wall St states that, “General Electric is the sixth

most toxic company when considering the amount of population exposed to its pollution and its

toxicity level from its plants” (Allen, 2009). Despite General Electric’s harmful bearings on the
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environment, the company still held a 90-million-dollar campaign advertising their

“ecomagination”.

Greenwashing is the act of convincing consumers that a company is ecologically

responsible without rooting the principal of sustainability in the company’s core beliefs. The

article Is Silicon Valley Guilty of Greenwashing?, highlights the growth of sustainability

advertisement used within corporate sales, “Since 2010, brands with environmental messages

have grown significantly, with 85% of people receptive of companies that utilize sustainable

practices” (Is Silicon Valley Guilty of Greenwashing?, 2017). The shift in brand representation

suggests that corporations have put more effort and attention towards creating more eco-friendly

practices, however, this is not always the truth. Greenwashing is problematic because it is

ethically wrong for corporations to falsely advertise themselves as eco-conscious companies

without putting in the effort or energy to make progressive changes to their actions. The real

issue within greenwashing, however, is rooted in the challenge of understanding how to

differentiate between which companies act from genuine ethical devotion and which companies

act with a desire to increase sales and profit.

Authors of the journal, The Drivers of Greenwashing, state that, “Regulation of

greenwashing is extremely limited in the U.S. and enforcement of such regulation is highly

uncertain” (Delmas & Burbano, 2011). Lack of environmental regulation within tech

corporations allow greenwashing firms to easily slip by as green companies even if their

practices are far from that. In addition, the authors highlight the only existing law in place that

affects greenwashing, Section 5 of the FTC Act. Section 5 aims to prohibit deceptive

advertisement through ten-thousand dollar fines. Although this section is set in place to deter
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businesses from greenwashing practices, few charges have been made under Section 5 in relation

to the high numbers of companies that are falsely advertising green practices every day.

Regardless of legal restrictions, it is challenging to define what terms like “eco-friendly”

mean to society and policymakers. Authors Demlas and Burbano state that, “effective

implementation of more stringent regulation would be challenging due to a lack of clarity about

what constitutes green behavior and confusion surrounding the correct use of green adjectives

such as ‘biodegradable’ and ‘all-natural’” (Delmas & Burbano, 2011). If eco-related terms are

not well defined within our laws and society, policymakers cannot begin to outline what

standards companies should be held to when advertising themselves as green. With strong

regulatory limitations and lack of clear terminology, it becomes difficult to pinpoint which firms

are brown firms (firms that greenwash their actions) and which firms should be rewarded for

sincere eco-consciousness. Thus, it comes into question whose responsibility it would be to

determine, 1. How to decide which companies are green and which are greenwashing, and 2.

How to prevent companies from becoming brown firms with ethically wrong behaviors. These

responsibilities lie in the hands of various individuals that work closely within or outside of a

specified company.

Greenwashing practices impact a network of ties, organizations, and individuals

connected to its’ company. Many of the groups and individuals connected to greenwashing

organizations have the responsibility as well as the accessibility to determine which companies

are greenwashing and how it can be stopped. Those that influence and are influenced by the

process of greenwashing include consumers, companies in competition, managers, non-

governmental organizations (NGOs), policymakers, investors, and the company itself.

Consumers are directly impacted by the effects of greenwashing as the act of it focuses on
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deceiving buyers. Greenwashing decreases consumer confidence and trust in a company’s

authenticity and values. This distrust not only impacts a company that is not honest with their

production process, but also competing companies with similar, eco-friendly claims. Competing

companies that are truly green consequently have a lowered merit as sustainably aware because

consumers believe they could be dishonest like many other companies are. The same issue

effects investors that look to support companies with values such as environmental

responsibility. Investors struggle to find companies that have legitimate plans for eco-friendly

practices when many tend to be brown firms.

Policymakers, managers, companies, and NGO’s have power to influence a potentially

greenwashing firm. Policymakers obtain the authority to create federal laws that could prohibit

many of the greenwashing behaviors companies often get away with. Managers and companies

have control over their businesses’ practices and the power to create in-house policies that could

prevent greenwashing, turn a brown company green, or even prevent brown companies from

vocalizing sustainable actions that are untrue. NGOs can consist of environmental activists

whom find interest in fighting business practices that harm the earth. Activists like this fight

fabricated depictions and unsustainable practices within tech corporations through attacking and

bringing attention to a firm’s flaws with the use of media. These individuals and groups of

people play a key role in ensuring organizations are held accountable for their actions and

processes. Although greenwashing is a complex issue to take on, there are multiple solutions to

the problem through the help of those that are linked to company processes and environmental

progression. The first step of remedy is to identify a product’s life cycle through the resources

and stages it takes to create the product. Ethics in Graphic Design states that to do so, “Questions

need to be raised about how much fuel is being used for shipping, what the final product is, how
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long the life cycle is, and how long before the product ends up as waste” (Sustainability, n.d.).

Understanding the life cycle of a company’s products helps the public to measure how green a

company truly is.

An important part of consumer accessibility to a tech product’s life cycle is transparency. In

the article Is Silicon Valley Guilty of Greenwashing?, authors states that “Looking through 100

different Silicon Valley companies, including Facebook and Google, the Center for

Sustainability and Excellence found less than 30 percent actually released detailed sustainability

reports between 2013 and 2016” (Is Silicon Valley Guilty of Greenwashing?, 2017). The

murkiness of a company’s practices through lack of reports suggest their green shell may be

cracked. Transparency can be accomplished through disclosure of product details, production

process, and reports. An increase of overall sustainable transparency would help to deter

companies from engaging in greenwashing. Another way to solve the greenwashing trend is

through creating stronger, in-house or federal protocols. Stronger federal regulations would help

to expose companies that greenwash, and in result, dissuade companies from choosing to

misrepresent their environmental contributions. In addition, solid regulations may not only

prevent companies from greenwashing, but also encourage companies to take measures towards

ensuring they are far from greenwashing.

Greenwashing can be further prevented through company self-awareness and incentive to

avoid greenwashing behaviors. In the article, How to Make Sure Your Business Isn’t

‘Greenwashing’, Business Insider depicts “three ways businesses can gauge their own green-ness

and make sure their claims are passing the greenwashing sniff test” (Burg, 2013). The three

things companies can do to prevent greenwashing include checking green labeling on their

packaging and products, ensuring their products transport/ship sustainably, and partnering with
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vendors that have the same sustainability standards as their own company (if not better). In more

detail, Business Insider lists three checks that can be used to ensure marketing is authentically

green. These include verifying communication is clear, certificates/ seals are honest and real, and

that marketing obeys all environmental guidelines written by the Federal Trade Commission

(FTC). Business Insider also lists five ways to ensure vendors comply with a company’s

sustainability standards. These include checking out the vendor to review their standards, setting

up evaluations, creating criteria that vendors must meet, scheduling evaluation times, and

dropping suppliers that do not comply. These examples of in-house policies that support eco-

friendly production are effective ways of transforming a brown firm into a green firm.

In-house workers are not the only employees connected with a business that can make a

positive impact. For example, contracted graphic designers have the power to influence tech

corporations they work for by integrating and communicating values of eco-consciousness

within their work. Renourish.org provides graphic designers with the tools necessary to inhibit

unsustainable practices graphic designers may find present in their clients’ work environment.

Renourish created a guide of sustainable standards for designers that is described as, “a logical

set of criteria for continued improvement towards a more sustainable economy and future” (re-

nourish, n.d.). Resources like this aid individual workers that aim to improve their partner’s

sustainable practices so that they better align with their own values. Various persons connected

to greenwashing within tech corporations can use these solutions to impact effective,

environmental change. Ultimately, ending the trend of greenwashing altogether. These solutions

are not mutually exclusive and would have the greatest effect on the overall issue if taken on

simultaneously across the nation.

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In my current position, as a student and graphic designer, I would choose to use resources

such as renourish.org to influence and teach potential companies more about sustainability and

design. Although this may not seem like much, if enough designers choose to educate companies

on sustainable practices they can decrease the amount of greenwashing that occurs within large

tech corporations they are a part of. Despite the complexity of greenwashing within tech

corporations, effective solutions exist making the issue easier to comprehend, regulate, and

counteract. Through these solutions organizations, consumers, and individuals that work in close

relation to tech corporations can develop an understanding of how to differentiate green

corporations from those that greenwash. As we move towards eliminating greenwashing within

corporations we also move towards creating a society that values the importance of giving back

to the earth what is taken from it.

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References

Allen, A. (2009, April 02). The “Green” Hypocrisy: America’s Corporate Environment

Champions Pollute The World. Retrieved December 04, 2017, from http://247wallst.com/

Burg, N. (2013, October 22). How To Make Sure Your Company Isn't 'Greenwashing'. Retrieved

October 29, 2017, from http://www.businessinsider.com/sc/make-sure-your-company-

isnt-greenwashing-2013-10

Delmas, M.A., & Burbano, V.V. (2011). The Drivers of Greenwashing. California Management

Review, 54(1), 64-87.

Is Silicon Valley Guilty of Greenwashing? (2017, June 23). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from

https://innotechtoday.com/greenwashing/

Re-nourish standards | Re-nourish. (n.d.). Retrieved December 3, 2017, from http://re-

nourish.org/re-nourish-standards/

Sustainability. (n.d.). Retrieved October 29, 2017, from

http://www.ethicsingraphicdesign.org/morality/sustainability/