Fake Greenwashing: The New “Green” Trend?
Most of us have heard on NPR’s Marketplace that the GMO-giant, Monsanto — a sponsor of the program — is “committed to sustainable agriculture…Produce more. Conserve more.” Obvious greenwashing, if you ask any farmer at a local farmers’ market or people committed to growing with nature, not synthetic chemicals. For more examples of greenwashing, see the Greenwashing Index from EnviroMedia and the University of Oregon.
But how is Wick Building Systems, a post frame construction company based in Wisconsin, going green? They promoted “It’s Good to Be Green, or blue or red or grey or any of our other roof colors.” Sure, Wick Building’s type of reflective metals does help save cooling costs, and the company did form a 12 person Green Initiative Committee in September of 2008 to discuss green practices. But how many other ways are they green? Interestingly, by November 23, 2009, the company filed a petition for reorganization under Chapter 11 of the US bankruptcy code. Most of the truly green companies featured in ECOpreneuring are prospering, not failing.
The Wick Building advertisements and others like them appear to me as “fake greenwashing.” The ads do not appear to be designed to highlight these companies’ overall green or sustainable initiatives, just touch on an aspect that might offer a glimpse of green. The ads seem to be designed to attract eyeballs of those people who are aware that the planet is in peril.
Leave it to an institution of higher learning to fake greenwashing better than most. When I was attending a sustainable farming conference in Des Moines, Iowa, recently, I was blown away by an Iowa State University advertisement at the bank of escalators. “End global warming. Begin here.”
Is their campus “climate neutral”, I wondered. Is it completely powered by renewable energy? Is nearly all the cafeteria food organic and sourced within a hundred miles of the campus? Are all the campus buildings LEED certified? Are all their buses and campus vehicles powered by natural gas or electric? With the cost of tuition these days, perhaps it was possible, I thought.
But when I called Annette Hacker, Iowa State University’s News Service Director, she answered no to every question.
Hacker quickly pointed out, however, that the university is on the cutting edge of climate and energy research, has goals to secure some amount of energy from renewable sources in the coming years, and even has one cafeteria that features more sustainable food sources. As of 2008, they even have a Director of Sustainability who will guide their sustainability initiatives on campus, promoted as Live Green Iowa State. “That’s our aspiration,” says Hacker, about becoming more sustainable.
But should Iowa State University be advertising itself as the place where we can end global warming?
My experience as a former ad guy at a large ad agency in Chicago suggests otherwise. The College Sustainability Report Card gave Iowa State University a B- in 2010 (up from only a C in 2009). Perhaps there’s a better strength to play up on campus than creating an advertising campaign around climate change to attract students who want to help heal the planet.
What do you think? I can think of several other universities better prepared to take on climate change. Maybe you’re attending one?
Photography: John D. Ivanko/www.ecopreneuring.biz
That does seem rather silly that Iowa State promotes itself so highly as a leader in sustainability, yet does not engage in the activities you suggested. I can’t help but think that universities have only started becoming interested in sustainability and LEED in the last year or so. They still have lots of progress to be made, but at least they are considering it. In terms of other greenwashing tactics, I think people are becoming more knowledgeable about the environment, climate change, and LEED. Therefore, they may be less susceptible to such claims now than a year or so ago. I think we will see fewer greenwashing campaigns because people are getting too smart for them. People, like you, will start asking questions.
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Oh, right. Record cold temps throughout most of the world in Jan. ‘10. Global Warming my ASS! WAKE UP PEOPLE! GLOBAL WARMING IS A SCAM!, and all they want is YOUR MONEY! How do you explain the fact that the temperature on other planets in our solar system is rising/cooling and no HUMAN lives on them?
Oh, right, I forgot – now the EPA says CO2 is a pollutant! Well, I guess we should eliminate all land animals – they all exhale CO2!
That’s always the thing, isn’t it? The brands with the most marketing savvy and biggest budgets are usually the ones who aren’t evolving toward sustainability as much as they know they need to appear to be. What I’m seeing, however, is that a lot of consumers are just as skeptical as you, John, about such claims. It will make it harder for those authentically sustainably developing companies to get their word across (because consumers will get jaded), but I have to believe that soon enough the word will be “on the street” about those organizations making pseudo claims. Monsanto is a fascinating case study – they can’t backtrack over all the years of harm they’ve been doing by changing a tagline. But, they’ll be trying.