Shades of green: washing or hushing?

With all the work companies put into becoming more sustainable, navigating ESG goals, implementing changes and measuring impact, they should be vocal about their efforts and the impact. And not just in a reporting context. When communicating with stakeholders, businesses should see sustainability as a branding and commercial opportunity to elevate and differentiate their brand – and to be beacons for others.?

However, sustainability can be complex; the lingo, the intricate causalities, and upstream and downstream value chains. It is quite a domain. And when it comes to communicating and marketing sustainability efforts, some brands cut corners.

There is money in green?

There is money in sustainability and promoting a green profile; consumers gravitate towards brands that do good and strive to minimise environmental harm. They are willing to pay extra for?products and services with more eco-friendly and ethical value chains. For sure,?it can be tempting to paint a brand greener than it is. But the result of unsubstantiated, misleading or vague claims may be accusations of greenwashing.

Apart from backfiring on the company, greenwashing is counterproductive to the success of the green transition as it erodes the credibility of the sustainability initiatives and communications and leads to scepticism and lack of trust among consumers.?

Companies?deploy various strategies and shades of green in their communication, of which greenwashing is best known and with greenhushing at the other end of the spectrum.?

• Greenwashing is when a company presents itself or a product as greener and more sustainable than is the case.?
• Greenhushing refers to a company's decision to remain silent about its sustainability efforts and achievements and not use it in, e.g., branding and marketing activities.

Why are companies greenhushing?

While greenwashing can be seen as a desire to tap into an attractive market, greenhushing, the silence strategy, seems less obvious?– why would somebody choose to stay under the radar with a positive message about sustainability?

One reason is that not all brands know what to say. Sustainability can be complex and overwhelming, and so can storytelling. Especially if sustainability isn’t integrated into the brand and primarily lives on the website as an isolated tab. An add-on.?Because of compliance.

Another reason for under-communicating is fear of being requested to provide data, which can strain already scarce resources, particularly for smaller companies.?In this light, going?under the radar is a way to protect your business from scrutiny?and, ultimately, being accused of greenwashing.?

Finally, for some companies, sustainability isn’t right up their alley, so to speak. Perhaps customers, whether B2B or B2C,?don’t perceive sustainability as relevant for the category and?may not have particularly strong feelings about sustainability concerning, for example, bicycles. But sustainability is a shared responsibility, and if customers are stuck in an old mindset regarding specific product categories, the brands must educate the market. The first step is to be transparent about environmental impact.

In all fairness, between washing and hushing, many businesses do a decent job communicating about their sustainability efforts and promoting products and services ethically, transparently and trustworthy.?

From imprecisely “sustainable” to the specific green details

According to an?article ?in the Danish newspaper, B?rsen, the number of reported greenwashing cases is increasing. From 16 new cases in 2019 to 95 new cases in 2022. At the same time, several companies reveal that they refrain from making any claims of sustainability in their marketing communication, allegedly out of fear of greenwashing accusations.?

The increasing number of greenwashing cases indicates that the field is still immature and that the definitions of greenwashing may be blurred. However, the case processing could be faster, and cases are at risk of exceeding the statute of limitations, which will delay setting a precedent.

In a Danish context, if the marketing communication is specific and the claims are documented, it is within the realm of the law.?This is backed up by a recently proposed law, “The EU Directive on Green Claims”, which requires companies to substantiate and verify their environmental claims to protect?consumers from greenwashing

Marketers need to educate themselves on how to market sustainability without falling into the pitfall of greenwashing. The short version is that companies must be able to substantiate any green claims. This is why promoting products as “sustainable” will most likely be on the retreat since very few things are “sustainable.” Doing good in one corner of the value chain doesn’t offset a negative impact in another corner. This means we’ll see more detailed declarations, such as “30% of the material is recycled”, “This wrapping is made of 100% bio-degradable materials”, or “The production is based on technologies to reduce water consumption by 10%.” These are great initiatives, but they don’t qualify to label a product as “sustainable.”

Sustainability originates at the heart of the company – not in the marketing department

The sustainability claim cannot be a flavour the marketing department adds. To be a genuine business driver, it has to originate at the heart of the business from where it guides the marketing message.?With sustainability deeply embedded in the business and aligned with the company’s purpose, the sustainability claim is authentic, and marketing is simply a continuation of the sustainability narrative.

How to brand sustainability?

What does sustainability look like when translated into design and messaging? We see a lot of greenery, nature romanticism and beige aesthetics, as well as the “green” claim on repeat. Used the right way, “green” can be an impactful trigger and sometimes “green” is just spot-on for a brand – but as green becomes the go-to add-on for all brands, it becomes uniform – and you can kiss differentiation goodbye.

Designers, marketers and design buyers must ask themselves: How can we creatively enable sustainability storytelling and release sustainability in a design language that aligns with the brand so that sustainability is integrated into the brand framework rather than being an add-on?

Does your brand show its true colours?

Transparent communication fosters trust. It can inspire and drive change. Brands, communicators and marketers are responsible for releasing the sustainability agenda commercially. We don’t need misleading claims or hyperbolic bragging to muddle the agenda, but we also don’t need a culture of fear-based staying-under-the-radar tactics. We need sustainable businesses to be at the forefront. So, don’t wash, don’t hush, but be authentic, transparent and speak up. Anything else is counterproductive and a waste of precious time.

Glossary for shades of green?

• Greenwashing?is when?companies make misleading or unsubstantiated claims about their environmental credentials.
• Greencrowding?is when a company joins and adopts a group initiative but doesn’t make any changes to impact the green transition.
• Greenlighting?is when a company spotlights a particularly green feature of its operations or products. This tactic aims to draw attention away from environmentally damaging activities conducted elsewhere.
• Greenshifting?is when companies imply that the consumer is at fault and shift the blame onto them, deflecting focus from the root cause.
• Greenlabelling?is when companies market?a product in a way that makes it look as if it is green or sustainable.
• Greenrinsing?is when a?company regularly changes its ESG?targets before they are achieved.
• Greenhushing?is when companies refrain from sharing information about the sustainability of their products.

Sustainable purpose as strategic game changer. If you want to read more about the power of a sustainable purpose and how businesses navigate regulations as well as stakeholder expectations, take a look at the report “The sustainable purpose as strategic game changer”

Read the report here

Contact

Reach out to us if you want to learn more about how Make? can help your company release the branding potential of your sustainability efforts and reporting.

Rasmus Engelhardt Sr. advisor corp. comms, [email protected], +45 22 49 24 46