Greenwashing is a term that has been developed to describe businesses that are using ‘green marketing’ to help sell their products rather than being green in order to save and protect our planet. Greenwashing gives customers the perception that the business has policies and aims that help or protect the environment.

There is several ways that an organisation can greenwash, it can be as simple as changing the labels on the garments so that they show or reflect the natural environment, or advertising ways that a very small part of the company is being more environmentally friendly (such as using renewable energy in a few of their stores), or maybe even listing green aims that the business wants to achieve with no set set time plan to achieve these aims in.

Greenwashing is a technique used in the food industry and other industries as well as fashion. Organisations in the food industry that use greenwashing use similar techniques to those used in the fashion industry, such as replacing the labels on the food products and labelling them as sustainable. If you do some research into these labels, you’ll find that the people certifying them aren’t a legit organisation and that it is actually a certification that the business has given itself.

H&M are very well know as a fast fashion business that uses greenwashing techniques. They sell a sustainable clothing range called ‘Conscious’. However the only stock a small amount of their conscious clothing line and don’t advertise it clearly in store. When talking to people about the conscious clothing line, most people didn’t even know it existed and in addition to this, they don’t sell their conscious clothing line on their standard website, it has its own separate website. It’s almost as though they don’t want the people who shop the conscious range to see how much normal or ‘bad’ stock they sell in comparison.

During my time at university, studying Fashion Design, I’ve noticed how easily people succumb to greenwashing. Some students think that if a business states that they have plans to become more sustainable, that the business should be forgiven and it is then okay to shop there like normal, but I disagree! If a fast fashion business has the potential to bring out clothing in new styles in the space of a week, then they can definitely find ways to become more sustainable instead of just ‘planning’ to become sustainable.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t matter how sustainable a business like H&M become, it doesn’t matter if they only use sustainable energy or if they never use sweatshops, we still shouldn’t support fast fashion business until we can find a solution for the textiles waste problems that these businesses have created. If we still buy from these brands, then we are still supporting the problem!

Thank you for taking the time to read my post, if you’re interested in learning the different ways that you can make little changes in order to make a big difference, then head over to my next post ‘How can you make a difference?’