With green marketing practices, a company can increase employee satisfaction. Many employees are proud and happy to work with an environmentally friendly company. This is very useful for long-term customer loyalty. 2. Boycott companies: Boycotting companies that use greenwashing business tactics will raise awareness of the essence of sustainability. Being green or sustainable includes many elements; Energy efficiency, clean/renewable energy use, water conservation, recycling and waste management, environmentally friendly clothing, organic products, sustainable agriculture and much more. The key to a successful green marketing strategy is to communicate authentic and concrete facts about a company`s commitment to social and environmental causes. Since the Delmas and Burbano report [11], the green market has proliferated. Consumers, financial markets, products, services and businesses have expanded. As there is an increase in green markets, the phenomenon of greenwashing follows [28]. The phenomenon is defined as „the intersection of two fixed behaviours: poor environmental performance and positive communication about environmental performance” ([11], p.
65). In some cases, switching to the use of green materials can result in higher costs in your production process or elsewhere in your plant. A furniture manufacturer who switches suppliers to buy only sustainably harvested wood will likely have to pay a higher price for their wood. Higher costs must be passed on to customers in the form of higher prices or in the form of a lower profit margin of its products at the expense of the company. Zhang L, Li D, Cao C, Huang S (2018) The influence of greenwashing perception on green purchasing intentions: the mediating role of green word of mouth and the moderating role of green concern. J Clean Prod 187: 740-750 doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.201 In developed countries that have greater environmental awareness, regulation by authorities is at a higher level of development than in developing countries, in the United States, the regulation of greenwashing is extremely limited with uncertain application of regulations [11]. In response to these non-binding regulatory guidelines, scientists, activists and environmentalists have argued that it does not sufficiently protect consumers from the harmful effects of the phenomenon of greenwashing [15]. Guo R, Tao L, Yan L, Gao P (2014) The impact of the trust of greenwashing brands in the Chinese microbiological industry from a decoupling perspective. Indian J 10(7):1827–1831 Some companies invest in green marketing communications to be perceived as environmentally friendly and socially engaged. They do advertising and CSR to achieve better buying intentions and brand attitudes.[34] TerraChoice [48] reported that 95% of products claiming to be green in Canada and the United States have committed at least one of the „sins of greenwashing,” from the sin of hidden compromise to the sin of worshipping false labels. en Freitas Netto, S.V., Sobral, M.F.F., Ribeiro, A.R.B.
et al. Concepts and forms of greenwashing: a systematic review. Approximately Sci EUR 32, 19 (2020). doi.org/10.1186/s12302-020-0300-3 Some scientists only take environmental issues into account when they talk about greenwashing, distinguishing it by the term bluewashing, which means social issues. Other researchers do not make a distinction and consider greenwashing as a social and ecological phenomenon. An environmental marketing company called TerraChoice [48] has created a classification called „the seven sins of greenwashing.” The classification has been cited in several articles, Scanlan [42] cited as containing various fibs, half-truths, imprecision and other forms of cunning. Markham et al. [29] described that the seven sins help to more accurately identify cases of company- or product-based greenwashing. 4. Rules and Regulations: The implementation of rules and regulations could be a possible solution to control greenwashing.
Remember that a company that does green marketing must be progressive. Do your best at first. The bottom line is that your business continually reduces its impact on the environment. In order to achieve the second objective, a categorization of the phenomenon was developed. This classification of greenwashing is the main academic contribution of the study, which can provide a theoretical basis for the accusing element of the phenomenon. There are many different definitions of greenwashing from different perspectives. This review searches for the most recent literature to identify the different definitions of greenwashing and its forms. The main purpose of this article is to analyze the different typologies and characteristics of greenwashing. In order to achieve this goal, we have tried to systematically review the last 10 years in the literature. A systematic review of the literature was conducted for definitions of the phenomenon and related concepts; and its characteristics and typologies. The keywords used in the search engines were: „greenwashing”, „greenwashing” and „greenwasher”. Table 1 shows the specific search filters used in the Scopus and Web of Science databases.
There are a majority of business and management magazines related to environmental and sustainability issues in the selected articles. Other journals have brought the phenomenon of greenwashing in the fields of advertising and communication, economics, sociology and ethics, production engineering, marketing, accounting, tourism, education and others. These results show the multidisciplinary characteristics of the phenomenon.