What is it?A sneaky bit of colour-coding used by large corporations to give the impression that they're environmentally friendly - a sort of green camouflage to give the appearance of saving the world when really they're contributing to its demise, writes Kevin Courtney
How do we see through it?If their PR budget exceeds their environmental policy budget, then they're probably indulging in a spot of greenwashing. Why bother going to all that trouble to clean up your act? Just pay a PR company to tell everyone how environmentally friendly you are, and the gullible greens will swallow it.
Who's doing this?Visit your local supermarket: every second product, it seems, from toilet cleaner to cat food, trumpets its greenness on its label. If it's got a picture of trees, lakes or flopsy bunnies frolicking in a meadow, goes the thinking, then it must be environmentally friendly. Adding little prompts such as "saving the earth for you" or "gently caressing the planet" pushes the point home.
When did all this greenwashing start?In the 1960s, environmental activists began to suspect that some energy companies were not as green as their full-colour advertisements would have you believe. Pundits labelled these ads "ecopornography". The term "greenwash" has been around since the early 1990s, and went into wider use following the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The word was defined in the 1999 Concise Oxford Dictionary as "disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image".
Why is it in the news?Greenwashing is not just for big corporations - governments can do it too. George W Bush called a climate change conference in Washington DC last Thursday, bringing together 17 of the world's biggest polluters. Critics condemn the conference as a "greenwash", and claim it will result in no significant change in policy.
Why has he called it, then?Having refused to row in on the Kyoto Protocol and other green initiatives, Bush needs to convince Americans he's not really a big polluter, and that the 154 coal-fired power stations due to be built in the US over the next 25 year are not a sign of the country's over-dependence on fossil fuels. The conference, say environmentalists, is designed to deflect attacks on Bush's environmental policies by Democratic presidential candidates, and to undermine the UN process on climate change.
How do we stop this?Why not hold a massive pop concert, featuring big, wasteful pop stars preaching about saving the earth. That always works.
Try at work:Call the PR company - reactor number two needs another coat of greenwash.
Try at the shop:Don't greenwash me with that gunk - give me the cheaper toilet cleaner.
