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

Grassy Narrows (Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek)	For 8 years, Dryden Chemicals Ltd. dumped mercury into the English-Wabigoon river system, which fed into Grassy Narrows. The mercury poisoned fish in the river, a key food and economic source for the community. The Ontario provincial government advised the community to stop eating fish and closed their commercial fishery. Within a year of the fishery closing, Grassy Narrows’ unemployment rate jumped from 5 per cent to 95 per cent. Although Dryden Chemicals Ltd. has closed, the health effects of mercury contamination linger in community members.
Aamijiwnaang First Nation	Chemical Valley is Canada’s largest petrochemical complex. Over 60 petrochemical facilities can be found within a 25 km2 area. High rates of cancer, respiratory illness and reproductive health issues have been linked to living near these facilities. Members of the community depended on fish from the St. Clair River which flows through Chemical Valley. The river has had hundreds of spills which contributed to approximately 10 tonnes of pollutants in the St. Clair River.
Africville	In 1965, the City of Halifax undertook actions that took property away from and displaced members of the Africville community. The area became the location of environmental and social hazards. Hazards included "a fertilizer plant, slaughterhouse, tar factory, stone and coal crushing plant, cotton factory, prison, three systems of railway tracks, and an open dump." - Ingrid Waldron Africville descendants have fought back. "Most recently, in November 2016, up to 300 former residents and their descendants joined an application submitted to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia. The application was for a class-action lawsuit against Halifax over the loss of their land. In 2018, a judge turned down the application. The judge ruled that the plaintiff had not “satisfied the requirements” to certify the class action, which prevented the case from proceeding."  - Ingrid Waldron

Canadian Banks

Several climate justice groups in so-called Canada are targeting Canada's major banks. Why?

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.

Banks pouring a small amount of their earnings into climate-friendly initiatives 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.

However, between 2010 and 2018, ExxonMobil reportedly spent 0.2% of its capital expenditure on sources of low-carbon energy. These initiatives, therefore, are misleading.

If you have any suggested revisions or additional resources to share related to the above content, please email them to kenzie@lehub.ca.

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