greenwash
to pretend to be environmentally friendly
TRANSLATION
greenwash = Etikettenschwindel, Öko-Schwindel, Grünfärberei
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
"Politically, there were grounds to be sceptical about the initiative, with some thinking it could be a GREENWASH."
The London Independent
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"They plan to use the World Summit as an occasion to portray themselves as doing good with regards to environmental and social issues, as well as an opportunity to GREENWASH their tarnished images."
Briarpatch Magazine
Did you
know?
greenwash
- to make people believe that a company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is
Cambridge Dictionary
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WORD ORIGIN
The term greenwash has been around since the early nineties, emerging from the Earth Summit held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It entered the Concise Oxford Dictionary in 1999 as: "Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image."
The word greenwash is a blend of the adjective green, in the sense of "protecting the environment", and the verb whitewash meaning "to try to stop people from discovering the true facts about something".
For many years now, the adjective green has had a general association with eco-friendliness and environmental issues. Green can therefore function as a verb to mislead those concerned about the environment. For example, if one buys an "organic, environmentally-friendly" shampoo that contains chemicals such as sodium lauryl sulphate and propylene glycol, one can be said to have been greenwashed.
