The Truth Behind Greenwashing

Determine your shade of green. Understanding the shade of green of your customers is key. There is a lack of common ground when it comes to what exactly ESG should look like, so evaluating your consumers level of understanding will help you meet them in the middle. In the same way you'd usually assess the market, evaluate the consumer ideology but this time through a green lens. Survey your audience to understand their outlook on sustainability. Evaluate the pain points in your eco-consumers integration with your product, then consider how to ease their experience journey.

Today's consumer is all about convenience and transparency, so how do you create a seamless experience that leaves zero room for questioning your brand's intent? It's also important to give your consumers insights to your efforts with ease, as 39% of our respondents said being presented with easy access to company claims along with actions taken would increase trust.

Consider questions like:

How am I creating trust in our sustainability claims?
How are these claims then being advertised?
What informational resources am I providing my eco-consumer?
Is my brand truly deemed sustainable? What about the packaging? Building operations?
What are the pain points? How do logistics come into play when rethinking how we do this?
Who are the experts that can help us answer these questions?

Aramark, an American food service, facilities, uniform services provider, and longtime partner of WD, has answered these questions and rolled out a successful sustainability plan based upon those answers. The "Be Well. Do Well." commitment drives sustainability through eight priorities, aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations in 2015. These claims are accompanied by public annual impact reports that are also directly communicated to key stakeholders.

Get everyone on the same sustainability page. You will need to align your brand standards with your sustainability claims. Create a panel of key internal and external stakeholders in your business to open the sustainability conversation and create accountability where the gaps lie. If you are honestly serious about your sustainable transformation, conversations and accountability should be held at the executive and board levels as these are where many resources are allocated. However, don't stop the conversation here! Engage with your investors on these conversations, gather commitments, create a space for sustainability reporting, and tie these impacts directly to your financials. There's strength, and power, in numbers. Approach others in the industry to partner in a meaningful way on sustainability initiatives. We're all in this together, after all.

The Body Shop took this strategic discussion a step further by hosting a Boardroom 2030 activation³, where it invited a group of young people and activists from Extinction Rebellion, a global environmental movement, to speak with its team and rethink its approach. "What's new is that you have to dig hard with sustainability and R&D teams to identify proof points and tangible benefits that make sense to consumers," said Philippe Armand, chief marketing and experience officer at Michelin.

Don't try to be the expert. We can't all be experts in everything, which is why we surround ourselves with people and organizations that are. 35% of respondents we surveyed agreed that participation with official ESG organizations would increase the likelihood of claim believability.

For example, Athleta began a partnership with Fair Trade USA, an organization that promotes fair labor practices and wages for farmers and workers, an especially important sustainability pilar for Gen Z. With Fair Trade, Athleta introduced its first Fair Trade Certified collection, which now spans a total of 270 products. By partnering with Fair Trade, Athleta has successfully supported their mission to empower women while still giving back to the people who make their products. Simultaneously, Athleta has created consumer trust in the brand through this partnership.

In addition to bringing experts in, encourage your brand stakeholders to become advocates. Activism is key to change, and it also gives your business the opportunity to interact with consumer values directly. For example, in early 2022, UK clothing brand, Finisterre, hosted an ocean activist training camp and invited experts to share their insight on why ocean protection is important to sustainability and how to become better engaged in ocean protection. To start advocating within your brand, work with your team of stakeholders to define what activism looks like to your business and then create activism support policies for those who engage in activism efforts.

Labels leave no room for questions. Proper and legitimate labeling that the consumer knows and understands is one of the most black-and-white ways to bring credibility to your brand's sustainability efforts. Ranking the highest in creating trust between brands and eco-consumers, 56% of survey respondents found official eco-label certification to be the most helpful in true eco-product identification.

There are several certified eco-friendly labels that credible products and services can attain, many of which depend on your line of business and sustainability claims. For example, a common certification type relating to clean energy and sustainable products and services is the Green-e certification. You can find this certification on many household products from brands like Arm & Hammer, Herbal Essences, and many more. If you're looking to inform consumers that you are against animal cruelty, The Leaping Bunny certification promotes that the company has not tested their products on animals during the development process. This certification label can be found on cosmetics, personal care, household and cleaning products. The least industry specific certification, also considered the gold standard for sustainable brands, is the B Corp certification, which is obtained by measuring a company's social and environmental performance.

The list goes on and on. To evaluate labels that best align with your sustainability efforts, visit Sustainable America's Ultimate Guide to Sustainability Certifications.