Greenwashing

Greenwashing, coined by Jay Westerveld, describes practices of branding or marketing that mislead consumers about social and environmental benefits to generate profit without meaningfully acting on the issues they claim to support; a common strategy adopted by the fast fashion and fossil fuel industries - Remake Our World, adapted by Michelle Xie

Examples of Greenwashing

Canadian Banks

Disposability discourse	Much discussion around the severity of COVID was lessened by expressing how it mainly sickens and kills elderly, chronically ill, and disabled people. This discourse suggests these groups are seen disposable.
Loosened restrictions too early	When governments loosened COVID restrictions in response to business demands, political pressure, and public impatience, rather than scientific evidence, high risk populations (the chronically ill, disabled and elderly) were subsequently told they are disposable yet again.
Working through illness	Regulations around how many sick days should be required when someone falls ill with COVID also demonstrated ableism. In relation to these regulations, and in favour of profit above health, many politicians including US President Joe Biden, praised themselves for working through COVID, instead of encouraging people to rest and recover if they'd fallen ill.
Individualism	Individuals have been encouraged to make 'personal' choices on vaccines, masks and gatherings. "There is no individual safety without collective safety and collective safety requires that no one is safe unless everyone is safe." - Mia Mingus

Several climate justice groups in so-called Canada are targeting Canada's major banks for their investments in fossil fuels. Banks know from their consumer preferences research that climate change matters to their customers, so most of them put a small amount of their funding towards initiatives that encourage a 'green' image. This misleads the public into believing that they are environmentally-friendly companies, as some of the largest fossil fuel funders in the world.

Check out this instagram post by Banking on a Better Future for more specific examples of RBC's greenwashing.

Exxon Mobile

ExxonMobil has taken many initiatives to paint themselves as a 'green' company, despite being a fossil fuel company (direct culprits behind the climate crisis). For example, they say they have invested more than $10 billion in “lower-emission technologies” since 2000. In 2021, the company unveiled a division called ‘Low Carbon Solutions’ with plans to invest $3 billion on “lower emission energy solutions” through 2025, specifically through carbon capture and storage.

Between 2010 and 2018, ExxonMobil reportedly spent 0.2% of its capital expenditure on sources of low-carbon energy.





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