Insights for What’s Ahead

• Spectrum of greenwashing: As the public and regulators focus more on greenwashing, a growing range of actions can be interpreted as greenwashing, such as “false claims,” “exaggeration,” “omission of negatives,” “lack of context,” and “lack of evidence.” Roundtable attendees said accusations of “exaggeration,” “lack of context,” and “omission of negatives” are the most common their companies currently face. Besides greenwashing, other types of “washing” are also getting more scrutiny: “fem washing” (making things appear more women friendly) and “social washing” or “blue washing” (making a company seem more socially conscious than it actually is). As a result, marketing and communications executives need to educate their organizations to think more carefully and more broadl