The difference between green marketing and greenwashing

Green Washing

The world of capitalism is full of deception and trickery. Those who do it best and in the least offensive manner, have the best chances to be successful in this competitive and demanding environment. In the age of environmental awareness, many organizations claim that their product and services are 'environmentally friendly' or all natural, but these words often have little meaning and ring empty. The purpose of this essay is to analyze the differences between green marketing and green washing. This essay will define both terms before comparing and contrasting their different meanings.

Green marketing is an attempt to sell products and services using environmentally sound techniques and practices. Marketing in and of itself is a very deceptive practice that will and should always attempt to maximize profits and gain a competitive advantage for its organization. Green marketing, however, is understood to actually have true environmental concerns and looks out for the green movement in the production, sale and distribution of products and services given such a label.

Ottman (2010) wrote in her book that green is now mainstream.. She argued "Not too long ago, just a small group of deep green consumers existed. Today, 83% of consumers -- representing every generation, from Baby Boomers to Millennials and Gen Ys -- are some shade of green. Moreover, there are now finely defined segments of green consumers." Marketing techniques are now understood with an inherent eco-friendly essence.

Green-washing is simply misleading green marketing techniques that are ultimately proven to have false claims associated with these products' "greenness." Kewalramani & Soblesohn (2012) wrote "this recent, albeit alarming, phenomenon merges the concepts of "green" (environmentally sound), and "whitewashing" (to gloss over wrongdoing) to describe the deceptive use of green marketing which promotes a misleading perception that a company's policies, practices, products or services are environmentally friendly. "Eco-Friendly," "organic," "natural," and "green" are just some everyday examples of widely used labels that can be confusing, even misleading."