Climate Action
6 Greenwashing Ploys to Watch Out For
July 23, 2025
We are committed to a transition to sustainable materials.
This bottle is made from 100% recycled plastic.
We are a major investor in green energy.
You’ve likely seen statements like these in advertisements or on product labels. Buying a company’s products because of their sustainable practices can be admirable, but how much trust can we put in such claims?
Quick, Look Over There!
One of the most common greenwashing methods that companies employ is to make one small positive change or effort and then draw as much attention as they can to it.
For instance, ExxonMobil has long publicized its plan to construct carbon capture facilities in the UK, which would theoretically reduce the impact of its gas production. But despite their impressive talk, the project has struggled to realize necessary resources and government backing. So far, it seems like a long way off.
ExxonMobil isn’t the only fossil fuel corporation making promises it so far has not been able to keep. From 2000 to 2008, British Petroleum, BP, undertook a major advertising campaign, rebranding itself as “Beyond Petroleum” and emphasizing its alternative energy investments. Unfortunately, most of what they called “alternative” energy was natural gas, which is another form of fossil fuel and therefore hardly a greener option. Further, these investments represented just 7% of BP’s total investment budget, the rest of which was devoted to oil and coal energy.
In 2010, BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, creating the largest oil spill in human history. Researchers at the the American Economic Journal: Economic Policy, explored how BP’s “Beyond Petroleum” advertising campaign influenced public reaction to this oil spill. Their analysis revealed that areas with greater exposure to BP’s ‘green’ marketing efforts exhibited a notably weaker consumer backlash following the disaster compared to regions that saw fewer of the ads.
We Are Cutting Our Emissions
Another tactic commonly used by large corporations like Nestlé and PepsiCo is overreliance on Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR), or storing atmospheric carbon dioxide in the land or ocean. While CDR can certainly be useful, several companies have been criticized for using it as a way to avoid implementing the systemic change that true decarbonization requires. A recent report by the New Climate Institute reported that while Danone, Nestlé, Mars, JBS, and PepsiCo’s were taking action, the Institute concluded that it was “unlikely to result in meaningful emission reductions.” To many that sounds like their efforts could therefore be described as greenwashing.
Using CDR as a smokescreen should be doubly concerning for all of us as CDR only affects carbon dioxide, not other greenhouse gases. But these food and agricultural companies work with livestock, which is a huge source of methane.
Methane is a greenhouse gas like carbon dioxide, but it is more than 28 times stronger. Many of the initiatives these companies touted (like CDR) simply ignored the methane emissions associated with farming livestock. When companies like Nestle focus on removing carbon dioxide, they can fall behind on reducing their methane emissions.
Don’t Worry, Just Recycle
For the past few decades, many of us have grown more comfortable with and even passionate about recycling. At home, in restaurants and cafes, in office buildings, anywhere there is a garbage can, you are likely to see a recycling bin next to it. And that’s a good thing, right? The more plastic we put in those bins, the less plastic is heading to our landfills and oceans.
Except that isn’t quite how it works. Under 10% of plastic waste is recycled globally, with more than three quarters of all plastic still making its way into landfills or the ocean.
While advertising campaigns have sold us the idea that recycling is some kind of magical process that can transform any kind of used plastic into something new and valuable, the reality is that recycling is an incredibly inefficient process. And there are few buyers desperate to use recycled plastics. Creating new virgin plastic from petroleum is cheaper, easier, and results in a better quality product than recycled plastic.
If recycling plastics is so uncommon, why do we all think it’s actually happening? Because we believe the hype that makes us feel better about buying and using plastic. The idea that we can recycle our way out of our plastic tsunami is just greenwashing on a massive scale.
The only real solution to our plastic crisis is to buy, use, and thus produce less plastic overall. With half of all plastic produced worldwide being single-use, each of us has the power to make a difference simply by refusing single-use plastic bags and choosing not to purchase plastic soda and water bottles. If we all took meaningful steps, the collective impact would be enormous. Our actions would send a powerful, unmistakable message to the corporations flooding the market with plastic: we are done with single-use plastics, and we demand change.
Ta-Da, Green!
Next time you step out to your local grocery or convenience store, have a look at their bottled water. More likely than not, at least one of the brands on display will have leaves, a forest, or some other kind of greenery on their label. This, in a very literal sense, is greenwashing. While the brand may or may not directly claim to be sustainable, natural imagery—even just the color green—implies a kind of vague commitment to environmentalism.
These green-appearing designs use natural imagery to convince consumers that they are sustainable, despite their parent companies often being among the top plastic polluters globally.
Just Don’t Ask What it’s Made From…
While some companies appear to be the picture of sustainability, their materials are anything but. IKEA has been called out on multiple occasions for accepting lumber from environmentally valuable old-growth forests.
While IKEA makes a big point of only using recycled or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified wood, this is less of a guarantee than it seems — the FSC has itself been criticized for acting more like a greenwashing rubberstamp than a real regulatory body.
In 2021, Earthsight reported that IKEA had received wood from protected Russian forests. IKEA claimed to have stopped this practice once the information was made public. In 2024, it was discovered that IKEA was sourcing wood from the Romanian Carpathians, some of the only old-growth forests left in Europe.
It is extremely hard to be 100% sure that the furniture you are buying is not made from timber sourced from protected forests. One thing you can do is to invest in second hand furniture. That way you know you are reusing something already made, possibly a long time ago, and you are saving it from going to landfill. Many cities around the world have special days of the week dedicated to free furniture when residents put their unwanted furniture out on the streets for anyone who wants it.
My Fingers Were Crossed!
The simplest form of greenwashing is simply not telling the truth. Germany’s Deutsche Bank-owned asset manager DWS, for example, was recently found guilty of greenwashing.
It had claimed that environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing was central to its work, when in fact that was not the case.
One of the most infamous cases of greenwashing came from Volkswagen back in 2015. The car manufacturer was revealed to have cheated on emissions testing, passing grossly inefficient cars off as environmentally sound.
Staying Aware
Unfortunately, these and other methods of greenwashing are likely to become more and more prevalent as environmental concern increases and companies keep trying to convince you that they care.
The best thing you can do is stay alert. Research the companies you buy from. Consider how much of their business is sustainable, how specific their commitments are, whether they rely on plastic recycling, how accurate their labeling is, where their materials come from, and of course, check if they are being truthful. Finally, have they had complaints upheld against them or paid fines for misleading advertising or claims?
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