How to Avoid Greenwashing in Your Marketing Copy

What is greenwashing? 

“Greenwashing” is a buzzword directed at businesses who are overstating their green credentials. If a business implies or overtly states that its practices are “eco-friendly” without breaking down how or why, there can be enormous consequences. 

In practice, this may involve the company employing the art of distraction to turn attention towards credible activities, purposely omitting information, or pretending to be part of the solution as their actions contribute to the problem. Businesses who greenwash may also try to benefit from the Messenger Effect, using senior members of their companies and public figures to create a sense of authority and credibility.

The Global Sustainability Study of 2021 revealed that approximately 85% of consumers are “thinking and acting green” now, and more crucially that younger generations are more actively changing their behaviour to be more sustainable, so opening up a dialogue about responsible sustainability communications is more important than ever. Whether or not a company has the planet’s best interests at heart is something that massively affects purchasing decisions. 

Why should I care about greenwashing?

Taking reasonable measures to avoid greenwashing is, of course, important for the sake of compliance. If your company is accused of greenwashing there can be legal and regulatory penalties issued, including steep fines. As explained in this gov.uk article, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act of 2024 means that financial penalties of up to 10% of a company’s turnover can be issued for greenwashing. 

A great example of the financial consequences of greenwashing is the 2022 case with Kohl’s and Walmart, where the major US retailers were fined $5.5 million over misleading claims that their products were made with sustainable materials like bamboo, even though they decidedly were not. This leads us to the second reason you should care about greenwashing.

Accusations of greenwashing can hurt your relationships with potential consumers. Reputation is everything - once user trust is broken, it’s difficult to recover and can open your business up to further scrutiny. Carefully crafting your communications to avoid greenwashing is a conscious act of reputation management.

What should I do to avoid greenwashing?

Some businesses fear the negative consequences of greenwashing and make a point of instead understating their green credentials. This overcorrection is also a problem, known as greenhushing. In some ways, greenhushing is worse than greenwashing, as the lack of transparency similarly hurts brand reputation while also making it difficult for stakeholders to assess the true state of their company’s sustainability efforts. 

To avoid greenwashing (and greenhushing), the best course of action is to state your green credentials as accurately as possible. You can also publish a tailored ESG strategy or set of sustainability goals to your website so that it’s clear where your focus will be in the future and the reasonable steps you will take to get there. This way, you avoid the negative publicity of virtue signalling, and you’re far more likely to foster good will with consumers.

Copywriting to Avoid Greenwashing

Here are three tips to help you avoid greenwashing in your marketing copy:

• Be transparent about your sustainability efforts - The main thing to remember when crafting marketing copy is to be straight to the point. Avoid distractions, subversions and omissions. As long as you’re telling the full story and representing your company accurately, you’ll be safe from greenwashing accusations. A helpful structure to help with this is to discuss what you’re doing, what you’re not doing, and what you intend to do.
• Replace the buzzwords with straight-forward explanations - Greenwashing is easily done when you rely on words that sound right but ultimately don't mean much. In WWF’s guide to greenwashing, you’ll find a glossary of buzzwords that make ears prick up in a conversation around sustainability efforts. Anyone can claim that their product is “environmentally friendly”, for instance, but unless evidence is used to back up that claim, the word has only been used to signal virtue. This is sometimes known as green-labelling. 
• Back assertions up with (where possible) external data - To ensure that you’re not unintentionally greenwashing, you should only make statements about your green credentials if you can back them up with credible evidence. From a human behavioural perspective, this is important because most readers experience Ambiguity Aversion and innate scepticism about sustainability claims.

A simple (although resource and time consuming) way to guarantee that you can do this is to create an ESG or sustainability report, and/or aim for an accreditation like B Corporation. Companies creating and assuming sustainability reports are far less likely to greenwash because they have the clearest idea of what they’re doing, what they’re not, and what they realistically intend to do. 

Case Study: Apogee Corporation

Apogee Corporation (a partner of HP, which was in the top 2% of the world’s most sustainable companies in 2024) is a company offering managed workplace services to help their clients’ offices run more efficiently, while improving information security and reducing operational costs. They are a shining example of sustainability efforts in the technology sector, committed to being Net Zero by 2030 and certified to the ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard.

If you visit the Environmental page of their website, you’ll find a satisfying introduction to their ESG strategy and key components comprising it.

A screenshot of Apogee's Environment page, including text detailing their sustainability strategy, an introductory video, and a link to their Corporate Responsibility Report.

Looking at the section above in particular, you’ll notice:

• They link to trustworthy resources to back up their ESG claims. Apogee don’t rely on Authority Bias and trust signals to sell their vision. They make it easy to access their Corporate Responsibility Report, so readers can dig into their sustainability claims and see the progress being made for themselves. 
• They completely avoid greenwashing buzzwords. For example, they describe PrintReleaf as “a platform that reforests trees equivalent to the amount of pages you print”, trusting the reader to understand the environmental impact without misleading word choices like “carbon neutral”.
• They explain in clear language why their partnering companies are sustainable. Copy that greenwashes often just claims that the company is “eco-friendly”, without making any attempt to explain how or why. The business goals of Apogee’s partners, The ACE Line and PrintReleaf, are explained smartly and succinctly.

Key Takeaways

To conclude, greenwashing is easily done. The steps you need to take to avoid greenwashing may not be easy, but they are simple. If you’re intentional with everything you put on paper - from subject matter to word choices - you’ll be able to craft excellent content around your company’s sustainability that shines all the more for its simplicity.

Top 3 steps to avoid greenwashing:

• Be transparent and specific – Avoid vague or blanket claims. Clearly state what your business is doing, what it’s not, and your future goals.
• Swap buzzwords for facts – Ditch generic terms like “eco-friendly” or “green” unless you can define them with tangible, specific actions.
• Back up all claims with credible evidence – Whether it’s through reports, certifications or data, evidence is key to building trust and avoiding accusations.

If you’re in need of expert help to improve your copywriting, look no further. At Reflect Digital, our content team is always ready to lend a hand. Contact us today for more information.