Kris Hartley, an assistant professor at Arizona State University’s School of Sustainability, says that the mistrust greenwashing engenders can spread well beyond just the company making the false claims. “If consumers are not convinced that governments are doing enough to prevent greenwashing, and the press is doing enough to expose it, and the courts are doing enough to prosecute it, we may see declining public trust in those institutions as well.”
Hartley recommends looking out for anything exceedingly optimistic, ambiguous, or lacking in qualifying claims. “HSBC got in trouble with regulators in the U.K. for using catchy phrases like ‘Climate Change Doesn’t Do Borders’ in an advertising campaign without being forthcoming about the fact that as a global bank its financing activities can be linked to unsustainable activities around the world,” he says.
A product’s reliability and sustainability are closely linked,” says Arizona State’s Hartley. “The longer the lifespan of a product, the lower the rate of replacement and waste.”