How to avoid Greenwashing? Our 4 best practices

More and more companies are taking steps to limit their impact on the environment. By doing so, they are not only doing their part to combat climate change, they are also reaping significant benefits, such as improved customer appeal, enhanced brand value and the ability to attract and retain employees more easily.

These advantages therefore encourage companies to exploit them, which can lead them to engage in greenwashing 😱 i.e. spreading misinformation to give themselves an environmentally-friendly public image and obtain the associated rewards.

Is a company that engages in greenwashing ill-intentioned? Unfortunately, it's not that simple. Greenwashing is not always voluntary. Corporate sustainability is a rapidly evolving field, and the rules of the game are constantly changing. Even the best-intentioned companies can find themselves in a greenwashing situation.

Greenwashing, even when unintentional, can have serious consequences for companies and society.

Whatever their intentions, companies that practice greenwashing face three risks:

• Reputation risk, such as damage to brand image.
• Financial risk, for example in the form of government fines.
• Legal risk, such as exposure to legal proceedings.

Greenwashing also represents a risk for society and for the environmental transition because :

• Greenwashing delays awareness of the reality of the efforts required.
• Greenwashing prevents companies with a genuine commitment from standing out from the crowd.
• Greenwashing undermines trust in companies and slows down changes in behavior.

You've set up a CSR strategy (bravo!), and want to start communicating about it?

Very well, but you should know that communicating your commitments is easier said than done. It's the transparency and reliability of your information that will make the difference.

Here we explain how to adopt an open, explicit and factual approach to communication, so as to avoid the pitfall of exaggeration, and thus avoid being accused of Greenwashing, even if unintentionally.

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1 - Communicate with concrete, specific figures

Even if you haven't yet reached your targets, or if your results don't seem to be selling, always prefer to use hard data and/or figures you've achieved, rather than established marketing styles (e.g. "environmental-friendly"), blurred language and images with vague claims. Linking numbers to promises, or sharing data to back up information, helps clarify progress for stakeholders.

Not quite clear? Here are two examples of communication:

The main difference between these two examples lies in whether or not concrete data on the company's activities is shared.

• In the first example, progress is illustrated by comparing data between two periods, highlighting years of achievement and percentage reductions.
• Conversely, the second set of examples (clichéd, but nonetheless true) consists mainly of buzzwords, with no supporting evidence.

Credible ESG communication must be based on facts, which you must be able to share with your stakeholders to justify your statements. The best way to do this is through ESG reporting.

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2 - Use quality, verified data

Let's say you want to communicate on your efforts to reduce waste production, or on the recovery of waste produced.

Do you know how these rates were calculated? Have you made sure that you're not using terms like "zero waste" when you're only covering 12% of total waste?

The quality and reliability of the information you communicate is crucial. Review the way it has been calculated, the sources you rely on to gather it (especially if it comes from third parties), or the units in which it is displayed.

You don't need to share all the details of your calculations with your audience, but you do need to be able to provide them if ever asked (in addition to having them available for your own piloting).

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3 - Go for transparency

Transparency is essential, not only towards your customers, but also internally, particularly between the marketing/communications team and other departments. Indeed, marketing and communication teams are often far removed from more operational departments such as production and supply chain, and may communicate incorrect information due to lack of information. A reporting tool, shared throughout the company, can go a long way towards preventing such errors, in particular by enabling those developing the messages to ensure their accuracy and a full understanding of the company's impact.

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4 -In case of doubt, wait and analyze

We're in a time of climate emergency, but if it's urgent to act, there's no harm in waiting to communicate about your efforts when in doubt. In fact, if you're not sure that a statement in your communication isn't greenwashing, don't use it. Wait until you have more information, more proof, more concrete data or more time to make a comparison.