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Roundtable Report: Lessons on How to Avoid Stains of Greenwashing
December 19, 2022 | Report
A member-exclusive event held under the Chatham House Rule on Thursday, November 17, 2022.
Public scrutiny around greenwashing—claiming or giving the impression that a business, product, or service is environmentally and socially friendly or ecologically sustainable when there is little or no evidence to back those claims—is on the rise. Members of The Conference Board Marketing & Communications Center, along with experts on environmental, social & governance (ESG) issues, met in November 2022 to discuss the biggest challenges they face when it comes to managing the reputational and liability risks related to greenwashing.
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
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