But the Woodland Trust, the charity which campaigns for woods and trees, described HS2's announcement as "utter
greenwash nonsense".
The core purpose of
greenwash standards is to defend the profitable status quo in the industries that fund them.
According to
Greenwash Action, the GBI board is dominated by companies and trade associations in the chemical, plastics, and timber industry whose interests Green Globes is designed to protect.
The
Greenwash Action campaign is backed by the Sierra Club and Greenpeace, neither top of mind when counting allies of a business that develops greenfield sites, consumes diesel, and employs many.
While greenwashing appears to distort the extent to which consumers and corporations are, infact, adopting and purchasing environmentally sensitive goods and services,
greenwash also reduces the consumers' ability to determine the impact of their activities, a problem termed "green trust" (Chen and Chang, 2012).
Greenpeace launched its Stop
Greenwash campaign in 2009 to call out bad actors and help consumers make better choices.
While building awareness by engaging public interest is an essential part of the Earth Hour campaign, the community needs to remain wary of marketing gimmicks and
greenwash. This is one of the main reasons why EWS-WWF has been positioning environmental awareness through Earth Hour as an all-year-round concept, rather than a one-off publicity stunt.
While the word "
greenwash" is a relatively new term, the concept is not.
"Companies will always
greenwash and tarnish other companies that are taking steps towards sustainability.
Is the FREE initiative not just a way for SHV Gas to sell more LPG and
greenwash LPG?
Over the last decade, notions of sustainability have gained genuine political and cultural traction, but also thrown up the distracting spectre of
greenwash, which pays lip service to green ideas without really changing the game.
"Seeger joins a growing roster of international performers who have declined to whitewash,
greenwash, or in any way enable Israel's colonial project, including Elvis Costello, Gil Scott-Heron, Roger Waters, Devendra Banhart, and the Pixies," said Adalah.