· BIG ISSUES ·
Is Your Holiday Green, or is it Greenwashing?
Scribbled by Claire ◊ 10 Aug 2024
Greenwashing, the act of making product look more ethical and responsible than it really is, happens far too often within the travel industry. Read on to figure out how to identify if greenwashing is happening, what to do if you buy a greenwashed product, and more.
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We all get that sense of satisfaction when doing something good for the world; whether it is buying loose fruit and vegetables to reduce plastic, or recycling the empty jars collected in the last month – it feels great. Luckly, this same principle can be applied when travelling abroad!
When booking a holiday with the aim of travelling more ethically, what would you do? Maybe take some eco-friendly solid shampoo? Perhaps stay at an environmentally conscious hotel? The potential problem with these solutions, however, is greenwashing.
Travel companies have seen the growing trend towards ethical and sustainable travel and now seek to capitalise on this by persuading us that they sell the most ‘green’ products. Consider the packaging, whether physical or something you read online. This is designed for one thing only – to persuade you to part with your money.
Previously, buzzwords on packaging were phrases like ‘new’ or ‘improved formula’. These have now migrated to words like ‘ethical’, ‘eco-friendly’ and ‘sustainable’.
But are they?
What is Greenwashing?
Simply put, greenwashing is when a business falsely projects itself as green and ethical to attract a specific type of consumer.
It is the new generation of advertising – the green market. The idea being to appear ethical in order to sell your product to a different, possibly more discerning (and sometimes higher budget!) market. In fact, according to a Nielson poll in 2015, 66% of consumers were prepared to pay more for environmentally friendly goods. That number increases to 72% in millennials.
This deceptive use of marketing to portray a product or service as something that it is not for the benefit of company image and profit margins is commonplace and easy to miss. In 2010, a report by TerraChoice claimed that 95% of 5300 ‘green’ products in the U.S.A. and Canada commit at least one of the ‘sins’ of greenwashing (although this company was a little biased in its intentions).
WHERE DID THE TERM GREENWASHING COME FROM?
The term ‘greenwashing’ was coined in 1986 by American researcher Jay Westervelt in reference to the hotel industry requesting guests reuse their towels.
He was travelling in Fiji in 1983 where he saw the now ubiquitous ‘re-use your towels to help us help the environment’ sign. It was in a high-end resort which had no obvious care about the surrounding ecosystems and was in the midst of expansion.
Motivated by that, three years later he wrote a paper on the hospitality industry with the phrase “it all comes out in the greenwash”. The term stuck.
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How to Identify Greenwashing
There are a lot of insidious ways that greenwashing is put into action, some more difficult to spot than others.
Often, the seven ‘greenwashing sins’ are used to describe these methods. These cover the various approaches businesses use to attempt to fool people into thinking they are eco-friendly. Here are the sins, some classic examples, and questions to ask yourself:
Irrelevance. Stating something that whilst technically true, doesn’t impact on a product being eco-friendly. For example, the claim of a product being CFC free when CFCs have been effectively banned by law for over 30 years in most countries!
Hidden Trade Off. “Our packaging is made from at least XX% recycled materials” – the packaging may be but what about the product? What are you left with when the packaging is removed? Can the packaging be recycled again? What emissions were there in creating the product? An example is paper. Even if it is sourced from a sustainable forest, the manufacturing process may use bleach or chlorine. The oil and gas industry is another guilty party here – advertising about alternative energy sources while drilling in delicate habitats – a hidden trade off.
Vagueness. e.g. ‘Nature-based tourism’. It doesn’t actually mean anything other than ‘you’ll be outside’ but it is trying to make you think that it is sustainable or responsible. Keep an eye out for ‘all natural’ and ‘non-toxic’ too. Arsenic and mercury are naturally occurring, and everything is toxic at high enough dosages!
No Proof. When the claims made in the advertising aren’t backed up by any evidence within the company product or service information. For example, using the terms “eco-friendly” or “environmentally friendly”. If a company is unable or unwilling to explain how they are being eco-friendly then it is likely to be an incidence of greenwashing. Even if a product is environmentally friendly, what about the process behind it? An example would be energy efficient lightbulbs made in factories that pollute rivers with heavy metals. Always look for fine-print for verification of any quoted statistics.
Worshipping False Labels. This is the process of misleading customers into believing that a product has had a third party endorsement that doesn’t exist through clever use of words or images. Again, watch out for jargon like ‘eco-safe’.
Fibbing. When a product makes a claim that just simply isn’t true or uses words to hide a chemical. For example, unsustainable palm oil being labelled as vegetable oil in a food ingredient list. Sometimes products are listed certified when they are not.
Lesser of Two Evils. When a product claims to be the greenest of its type when it is inherently non-green. Examples include a more fuel efficient S.U.V. or organic cigarettes!
Other Things to Watch Out For
One other thing to watch out for is ‘executional greenwashing‘. This doesn’t use any direct claims like the examples above, but instead utilises images and colours that we generally associate with environmentally friendly products.
This is done to induce a false perception of greenness. Examples include trees, endangered species (like pandas), renewable energy sources like water/wind and natural scenery like mountains.
A study from 2015 found that products using ‘nature-evoking elements’ were regarded more highly by non-expert consumers than products without these visuals. This tactic is regularly employed in the tourism industry to improve the image of the trips and products they advertise – keep an eye out for it. You’ll likely start spotting it everywhere!
Note | one thing to always bear in mind, regardless of the subject, is that you generally can’t just buy a product to solve a problem. That fair trade chocolate you just bought isn’t going to solve the issue of systemic unfair trade practices in the supply chain of chocolate. It will just make you feel better for a short while (unless you’re on a diet!). This is not to say that you shouldn’t buy the chocolate (it’s normally better to buy fair trade) but do more than just buy the chocolate.
If a product is a victim of greenwashing, should we stop using it?
Well, a simplistic answer would just be ‘yes’. After all, the product was unethically marketed to you.
However, it’s not that simple. Waste is just as big a problem as greenwashing, so throwing away a perfect functioning product isn’t any better than buying it in the first place.
A better way to deal with a greenwashed product is to let other people (and the company) know. For example, ff you’re aware a product isn’t as green as it claims, you can use social media and leave reviews on relevant websites. This is often the biggest catalyst for change!
Bad press is a killer for companies.
“No raindrop thinks it caused the flood” is a great mindset. Since these companies need a positive perception, every negative review (however small an impact it feels) will push them, even if initially for the wrong reason, to live up to their promises.
Sometimes you also might be constrained by the availability of products that meet your needs, or by finances. Just be on the lookout for a better product or service that’s sustainable for you.
Greenwashing in Tourism
Greenwashing is an enormous problem in tourism.
The ‘responsible tourism’ industry has grown rapidly over the past decade. It is being used as an advertising ploy by every type of business in the sector: hotels, tour operators, restaurants, transport providers, gear manufacturers, and more.
With tourism, greenwashing can be especially challenging to spot because the concept of sustainability is complex.
There are numerous components to travel, such as waste issues, construction, utilities required, emissions, employment, supply chains, the cultural impact, and more.
The travel consumer, often in an unfamiliar environment, is unlikely to know (or be able to find out!) all the information needed to evaluate the sustainability of their trip. Read up on the basics of sustainability in tourism if you want to learn more.
How to Avoid Greenwashing in Tourism
For tour providers, transport and package holidays, there are some simple things you can do:
◊ Ask the questions that are important to you. Contact organisations directly – an ethical company will always have transparent answers to the important questions.
◊ Keep an eye out for all the above sins; things like – unsubstantiated claims, marketing with images of pandas on and jargon are common. Remember that ‘nature-based tourism’ phrase we talked about!
◊ Consider the owner of the organisation. Are they local – do they give back to the host community? Who do they employ? Some larger local businesses will be part of organisations that support various local endeavours. Economic leakage is a real problem and to be completely honest, really hard to trace.
◊ Does the company have any eco-accreditations or certifications? Check out the Global Sustainable Tourism Council for information on how they work and be careful of greenwashed certifications.
◊ When choosing airlines there are a few things to consider (none are great but we can minimise damage by choosing airlines that are making significant progress in the right direction). Some airlines might imply they recycle, but don’t really (KLM are very good, though, for example).
◊ Airlines know they are bad for the environment, but they’ll still try to persuade you otherwise! For solid, tangible reasons to choose an airline, pick one with a newer fleet, as these are generally a more fuel efficient option (Norse, Ethiopian, Qatar, Vietnam and Malaysian have reasonably young fleets). Some companies offer a carbon offsetting program (Emirates even offset it on your behalf). Having the ability to pre-order your food also saves fuel.
◊ Read any information about large-scale cruises very carefully – there are not sustainable. If they tell you they are, it’s likely to be a heavily greenwashed lie.
◊ Check reviews. Sometimes it is obvious that a company is sketchy. An example within the tourism industry are tour operators that claim to promote the wellbeing of animals, but then let you ride elephants (never do this please, it’s terrible).
My Thoughts in Practice
I think it’s becoming harder and harder to spot greenwashing tactics in the tourism industry. There are new, sneaky ways for companies to persuade you to pay for something less than ethical, and I don’t blame people for falling for it.
Personally, I never book organised tours or package holidays. This makes every individual element of a long-term trip almost impossible to vet in terms of greenwashing. My philosophy in these circumstances is to do my best to spot any typical greenwashing signs, always buy local, and question anything where it feels appropriate to do so.
I chose the hostel I’m staying in currently because their website said that they are sustainable, regenerative and ecological. They don’t provide any evidence to back this up – however English is not their first language and a lack of detail is unsurprising. I read reviews that confirmed that it used solar power and provides solid shampoo bars (which I love), amongst other things. I could book directly with the 100% Mexican owners, so it was a winner for me. It may not be perfect, but it’s pretty decent, they don’t seem to have been intentionally greenwashing anything and I feel good about that.
Remember that rarely is a company going to be 100% sustainable, but some are significantly better than others! Choose wisely as best you can.
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