How did you do in our greenwashing quiz!?
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Windex, the window-cleaner subsidiary of SC Johnson, has recently advertised their bottles made from plastic recycled from coastlines. While it appears that the Plastic Bank, the for-profit social enterprise that sources this “coastal plastic”, is transparent with its plastic sourcing, Windex is ignoring the overall damaging nature of their product to begin with. The harsh chemical ingredient list, coupled with the inability to determine where the bottle will end up at its end of life, mean that the negatives far outweigh any potential positives of using “coastal plastic.”
Greenwashing Sins: The Hidden Trade Off, The Lesser of Two Evils |
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This one might be a little harder to determine, but there are a few sins Fiji is committing with this ad. First off, similar to the Windex marketing, Fiji is ignoring the overall negative impact of plastic bottled water. How sustainable can it be to put water in plastic bottles and ship it halfway across the world? Secondly, this ad was found to be entirely false. By touting its “carbon negative water,” Fiji deceived the consumer into feeling that the overall production of this bottle of water is carbon negative, meaning that it captures more carbon from the atmosphere than it actually emits. In reality, Fiji simply purchased carbon offsets, a credit scheme whereby companies purchase the right to emit a certain amount into the atmosphere (these offsets then contribute to the removal of carbon separately). Additionally, a 2023 study found that over 90% of the carbon offsets from the world’s leading carbon standard were found to be phony!
Greenwashing Sins: The Lesser of Two Evils, Fibbing, No Proof |
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Sprite, a soda created by Coca Cola, is currently advertising their clear bottles in New Zealand, which they brag is easier to recycle than their old green bottles. That might be the case, but it’s not exactly environmentally friendly to produce 120 billion plastic bottles a year while putting the responsibility of recycling on the consumer. Here Coca Cola is trying to convince their customers that as a company they care about sustainability while simultaneously being the biggest plastic polluter in the world!!
Greenwashing Sins: The Hidden Trade Off, The Lesser of Two Evils |
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