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‘Greenwashing’: Painting a Facade of Ecological Concern
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David P
Nov 17, 2022, 12:39:05 PM11/17/22
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‘Greenwashing’: Painting a Facade of Ecological Concern
By Ben Zimmer, Nov. 10, 2022, WSJ
When the U.N. climate conference known as COP27 kicked off earlier this week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, one notable no-show was the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. The U.N. conferences, Ms. Thunberg explained to a gathering in London, “are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing.”
“Greenwashing” refers to superficial attempts by corporate and political leaders to present an environmentalist or “green” image. That may involve overstating the impact of climate initiatives such as the use of carbon offsets to make up for greenhouse-gas emissions. Or it may involve making a show of eco-friendliness while clamping down on climate activism.
Other ‘whitewashing’ spinoffs used by activists include ‘purplewashing’ for feminist issues and ‘redwashing’ for leftist issues.
The term “greenwashing” is often credited to the New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld, who reportedly used the term in a 1986 essay that cast a critical eye on hotels that urged guests to reuse their towels as an environmental measure. Mr. Westerveld told me that the word caught on in New York environmental circles before spreading more widely.
“The word ‘greenwashing’ just came to me,” Mr. Westerveld recalled in a 2011 interview. “It seemed really logical, pretty simple, kind of like whitewashing.”(Around the same time, others hit upon “greenwash” or “greenwashing” independently, as it appeared in newspapers in Colorado in 1983 and Tennessee in 1987.) The term works as a colorful riff on “whitewashing,” which has long referred to covering up faults or giving the false appearance of respectability.
Historically, “whitewash” was a mixture of water and powdered chalk or slaked lime, as calcium hydroxide was traditionally known. It was applied to walls and other surfaces to give them a fresh appearance without the need for scrubbing. Examples date to the 1580s, as in an account of a Puritan clergyman in the English town of Ashford who covered up his church’s Catholic images by having them “slubbered over with a white wash that in an hour may be undone.”
Literal whitewash persisted for centuries—think of Tom Sawyer in Mark Twain’s telling, convincing his friends and neighbors to whitewash a fence so that he can avoid the tedious chore. But the more metaphorical meaning of glossing over faults or errors emerged by the 18th century. When Edward Lewis published a flattering biography of Henry VIII in 1768, one reviewer wrote, “All the white-washing Mr. Lewis bestows upon Henry never can clear him from the charge of being, in civil and domestic matters, a barbarous and unrelenting tyrant.”
Further variations on the “whitewashing” theme retained the idea of deceptive image-making while swapping out “white” for another color or related term. “Pinkwashing,” for instance, was originally used to criticize companies for cynically co-opting breast cancer awareness campaigns and their pink ribbons. Eventually “pinkwashing” also came to be used to refer to groups insincerely displaying support for LGBTQ rights—also sometimes called “rainbow washing.”
Other “whitewashing” spinoffs used by activists include “purplewashing” for feminist issues and “redwashing” for leftist issues. In Canada, “maple-washing” has been used to refer to sanitizing the country’s history of racist treatment of indigenous groups. And “sportswashing” is reserved for when sporting events are used to rehabilitate a government’s reputation.
In environmental circles, “greenwashing” has proved popular enough that it has inspired other terms for shady practices such as “greenscamming.” And at COP27, many companies are taking a step back from trumpeting ambitious-sounding claims of helping the environment by setting emissions targets. The sudden lack of publicity around corporate climate-action efforts has been dubbed “green-hushing.” With so many potential pitfalls in promoting a truly eco-friendly agenda, it’s not easy going green.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/greenwashing-painting-a-facade-of-ecological-concern-11668113593
By Ben Zimmer, Nov. 10, 2022, WSJ
When the U.N. climate conference known as COP27 kicked off earlier this week in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, one notable no-show was the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg. The U.N. conferences, Ms. Thunberg explained to a gathering in London, “are mainly used as an opportunity for leaders and people in power to get attention, using many different kinds of greenwashing.”
“Greenwashing” refers to superficial attempts by corporate and political leaders to present an environmentalist or “green” image. That may involve overstating the impact of climate initiatives such as the use of carbon offsets to make up for greenhouse-gas emissions. Or it may involve making a show of eco-friendliness while clamping down on climate activism.
Other ‘whitewashing’ spinoffs used by activists include ‘purplewashing’ for feminist issues and ‘redwashing’ for leftist issues.
The term “greenwashing” is often credited to the New York environmentalist Jay Westerveld, who reportedly used the term in a 1986 essay that cast a critical eye on hotels that urged guests to reuse their towels as an environmental measure. Mr. Westerveld told me that the word caught on in New York environmental circles before spreading more widely.
“The word ‘greenwashing’ just came to me,” Mr. Westerveld recalled in a 2011 interview. “It seemed really logical, pretty simple, kind of like whitewashing.”(Around the same time, others hit upon “greenwash” or “greenwashing” independently, as it appeared in newspapers in Colorado in 1983 and Tennessee in 1987.) The term works as a colorful riff on “whitewashing,” which has long referred to covering up faults or giving the false appearance of respectability.
Historically, “whitewash” was a mixture of water and powdered chalk or slaked lime, as calcium hydroxide was traditionally known. It was applied to walls and other surfaces to give them a fresh appearance without the need for scrubbing. Examples date to the 1580s, as in an account of a Puritan clergyman in the English town of Ashford who covered up his church’s Catholic images by having them “slubbered over with a white wash that in an hour may be undone.”
Literal whitewash persisted for centuries—think of Tom Sawyer in Mark Twain’s telling, convincing his friends and neighbors to whitewash a fence so that he can avoid the tedious chore. But the more metaphorical meaning of glossing over faults or errors emerged by the 18th century. When Edward Lewis published a flattering biography of Henry VIII in 1768, one reviewer wrote, “All the white-washing Mr. Lewis bestows upon Henry never can clear him from the charge of being, in civil and domestic matters, a barbarous and unrelenting tyrant.”
Further variations on the “whitewashing” theme retained the idea of deceptive image-making while swapping out “white” for another color or related term. “Pinkwashing,” for instance, was originally used to criticize companies for cynically co-opting breast cancer awareness campaigns and their pink ribbons. Eventually “pinkwashing” also came to be used to refer to groups insincerely displaying support for LGBTQ rights—also sometimes called “rainbow washing.”
Other “whitewashing” spinoffs used by activists include “purplewashing” for feminist issues and “redwashing” for leftist issues. In Canada, “maple-washing” has been used to refer to sanitizing the country’s history of racist treatment of indigenous groups. And “sportswashing” is reserved for when sporting events are used to rehabilitate a government’s reputation.
In environmental circles, “greenwashing” has proved popular enough that it has inspired other terms for shady practices such as “greenscamming.” And at COP27, many companies are taking a step back from trumpeting ambitious-sounding claims of helping the environment by setting emissions targets. The sudden lack of publicity around corporate climate-action efforts has been dubbed “green-hushing.” With so many potential pitfalls in promoting a truly eco-friendly agenda, it’s not easy going green.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/greenwashing-painting-a-facade-of-ecological-concern-11668113593
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