The business of Greenwashing

Greenwashing, or Symbolic Corporate Environmentalism can be simplified as making insubstantial environmental claims to deceive customers and luring them into thinking that what they are buying is, in some sense, sustainable. When it’s not. 

With the rise of consciousness in fashion, consumers tend to be more aware of their impact and prefer to buy more sustainable options as a result. 

However, brands are leveraging this positive trend, to sell more, without creating the necessary changes to make their clothing more sustainable. Greenwashing is now a profitable business.

How can we consumers be more aware of the greenwashing trap? 

Fast fashion and ultra-fast fashion brands usually use greenwashing, to convey a very distorted message to customers via social media. Surely, no one can expect to buy ethical clothing for such a low price, so why are brands like H&M, Zara, Shein, etc., even trying to convey a positive message about sustainability? 

The influence of social media is immense for fast-fashion brands and passing on an ethical message about workers’ conditions in factories, and sustainable fabrics, can have a far-reaching impact on consumers. Most of us tend to believe what we see as facts and appreciate picture-perfect reality to ease our conscience. 

However, to greenwash, is to deceive. Making consumers believe the products they are buying are going towards sustainability, takes away the guilt of buying and even more leads consumers to believe that they are supporting sustainable products and brands.

A champion at greenwashing is H&M, the brand states on price tags that some of their garments are 77% recycled polyester.

What is actually happening behind such tags? 

It is mostly unclear, sometimes, customers can find clothing in the sustainable categories but no information is provided behind such tags. Prices on the other end, tend to be higher for clothing labeled as sustainable, when in fact it only pushes customers to consume more goods at a higher price. 

The responses show the instrumentalization of sustainability and the role of greenwashing in aggravating consumption through positive reinforcement. Customers should look out for sustainable tags in fast-fashion brands as they often hide a different reality. 

However, as a reaction to the customer’s demand for more sustainability and transparency, H&M is taking steps, as such the company has set goals in terms of recycled materials:

-2025: 30% of materials sourced for commercial goods to be certified recycled.

Progress 2022: 23%.

-2030: 100% of materials sourced for commercial goods to be either recycled or other more sustainably sourced.

Progress 2022: 84%.

The business model of H&M is always, nonetheless, to produce more and have a high clothing turnover to follow ever-evolving trends. The brand also has about 5,000 stores worldwide with over 600 million transactions in 2023. This is the paradigm of greenwashing, having a greener fashion image, due to small sustainable steps but not changing the core of the issue. I wonder if the business model is not an ever-going loop to foster greenwashing,

However, I kept asking myself throughout my research, why make such a big deal out of sustainability if the goal is to greenwash? 

I think the answer is actually simple, if consumers care about sustainability and are slowly changing their habits, then brands should follow. Therefore, I hope to believe that the future of greenwashing can be a positive, long-lasting change in the fashion industry.