The ACCC is right to pursue greenwashing – don’t get caught out
As the Australian competition regulator turns its attention to greenwashing, CEO of Pollinate, Howard Parry-Husbands, shares his top tips to avoid getting caught.
As the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) turns its attention to businesses and accusations of greenwashing, it’s no surprise businesses are confused about how to communicate their sustainability initiatives.
The sad truth is that, after 16 years of developing marketing campaigns as sustainability experts, we are still seeing the same mistakes being made by brands over and over again in their efforts to deliver ‘green’ communications.
Broad terms like ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘green’, or ‘sustainable’ have limited value and may mislead consumers, as they rarely provide enough information about what that exactly means in terms of the product or service consumers are considering purchasing.
Late last year the ACCC announced that at least 200 company websites were to be reviewed in the sweep for misleading environmental claims across a range of targeted sectors including energy, vehicles, household products and appliances, food and drink packaging, cosmetics, clothing and footwear.
While demand for sustainability in products is at an all time high, most Australians currently think brands make green claims as a ploy to put up prices. When 71% of Australians can’t figure out if a sustainable claim is legitimate, it’s no surprise that the ACCC is quite justified in prosecuting greenwashing.
The good news is that there are some simple considerations for brands developing a ‘green’ campaign to deliver without the embarrassment of ACCC prosecution:
1. Don’t try and educate people
People don’t care, they just want a better choice. The more numbers and statistics that businesses quote, the more people tune out. The more businesses explain how they have changed their processes to remove X tonnes of Y stuff to make their brand Z times better, the less people listen and engage.
The biggest failure of climate change communications in the last 20 years has been environmentalists’ obsession that we need more education built on the assumption that if we explain the science more people will care. This is known as the ‘knowledge-deficit’ model and it doesn’t work. Issues like climate change are incredibly complex and the human brain literally can’t grasp that complexity. So, if you are trying to promote your sustainability initiatives remember that more data makes it worse: people do not have an information deficit they have a complexity dilemma.
2. Use metaphors
Sustainability defies clear definition; it is like nutrition in that it has different meanings. The more you try and explain how your brand is going to make the world more sustainable the less plausible you will sound. So don’t try to explain it, use a metaphor instead. The human brain makes sense of just about everything using metaphors. Metaphors and analogies allow us to fold a complex system in to a simple coherent narrative that makes sense: carbon in the atmosphere is like wrapping the world in more and more blankets: it gets hotter and hotter. Metaphors also lend themselves to visual language and enable creative storytelling across multiple media. And best of all, metaphors are how we imagine the future, which should always be the end goal for sustainability.
3. Be positive and build hope
The environmental movement has been incredibly successful, but the failure to shift from a catastrophising narrative has been its biggest limit to growth. Many people associate the constant doomsday narrative with the boy who cried wolf. Others recognise the danger of climate change but cognitive dissonance causes them to reject the intangible risk for pragmatic needs, like choosing cheaper over greener.
As a result Australia’s sustainability landscape is littered with cans kicked down the road. The answer is to be humble but hopeful. Changing your product packaging from plastic to paper will not save the world but it is a step in the right direction. So build hope and momentum that the system can be changed, not through a catastrophic revolution but with practical, positive steps: an evolution of public and consumer behaviour.
Most greenwashing communications is likely unintentional, but unless businesses have a deep knowledge of the wicked problem of climate change, carbon offsets, consumer behaviour and complex systems then they are in danger of misleading the public with sustainability claims. Often following the classic KISS (keep it simple stupid) principles are the best course of action, explaining your sustainability initiatives in ways that are the easiest to digest.
Howard Parry-Husbands, is CEO of Pollinate and director of The Influence Group, he is also a non-executive director at Planet Ark.
