Greenwash

In the wake of my previous post bemoaning the parlous state of ethical consumer choice I thought I might explore the phenomenon known as 'Greenwashing'

'Greenwashing' encompasses many environmental claims and advertising tactics, some more nefarious than others. In a nutshell it seems to refer to claims of being Green that just don't stack up. These may vary from the outright false to those that mislead by focussing on a particular product while ignore a companies overall environmental record.

The ACCC, our consumer watchdog friends, focus particularly on issues of carbon neutrality. They claim to have been achieving success in clarifying business claims since 2007. Recognising that claims of environmental credentials are an emerging market the ACCC have sought to assist business in developing useful, consumer friendly advertising. While this sounds lovely and helpful I wonder if perhaps they aren't just compelling marketers to get more creative.

In 'Greenwash', Guy Pearse describes some marketers claims as "a torrent of corporate spin that sounds impressive but conceals mostly business as usual". He then goes on to unpack many brands claims of carbon neutrality and green goodness. Merciless in his attentions, Pearse cares little for the facade of green branding revealing the core interests of many a companies brown core.

One of Pearse's key tactics for revealing 'Greenwashing' is to look beyond the surface claims of any particular campaign, to the business behind the brand. This frequently reveals a core, burgeoning carbon footprint wallpapered over by an ethically friendly product.

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So let's give this 'Greenwashing' expose a trial...

Very Green?!

I was immediately suspicious the other day when I saw an advertisement for new 'Mother - Green Storm' energy drink. The byline screamed "fueled by natural caffeine", floating over packaging saturated in shades of green.

This looked suspiciously like a spurious claim to be enviro-friendly. All that green and the prominent use of the word 'natural'. But was it too easy a target, or just another crazy caffeine fueled adventure?

I began my search for information on the Mother website. Complete waste of time! I've seen more useful information on Charlie Sheen's Twitter account.

Mother's Facebook page doesn't give away too much either. Devoted to all the energy drinks various flavours the page makes no specific claims about 'Mother - Green Storm'. Instead we are presented with an increasingly inane array of scenarios in which friends may be vanquished (presumably with the aid of Mother?) More like an adult version of a fart joke (there is a clip where a character gets his bum blown off), Mother's Facebook is clean of any major noxious odours.

What about this claim of 'natural caffeine' though? 

Yahoo answers assured me that it's basically the same stuff we find in coffee, tea and cocoa. Hardly revolutionary, but I didn't plan on relying on such a hardcore sciency site.

Science Daily, citing the American Chemical Society, brought to my attention the fact that there are subtle differences between 'natural' and 'synthetic' caffeine. Basically I was on track to proving Mother Green Energy is about as environmental as a cup of strong coffee.

Now I spruiked the benefits of the Fairtrade model of coffee production in my last post, but do you trust 'Mother' to be Fairtrade? I could find no information to confirm or deny. If it's not though that means it is open to the many environmental concerns that could be leveled at coffee. These include: promoting monocultures and consequent reduction in biodiversity, excessive water use and deforestation.

Who's really the Mother here?

Mother's parent company Coca-Cola is no favourite for many an ethical shopper. Shop Ethical's guide to brands lists environmental concerns such as polluting groundwater, distributing toxic wastes as fertiliser and selling drinks with levels of pesticide.

So while Mother's green storm campaign may look like benign trickery at worst, it seems the whole brand is tainted (though not with pesticides - I'm definitely not claiming there's pesticide in Mother, unless a heap of sugar kills pests...) The Verdict:

'Greenwashing'