What is Greenwashing? How to spot it and stop it
As an analogy, greenwashing is to corporations as tree hugging is to individuals who say they care about the environment, it’s a symbolic reference that has little actual outcomes. And more so just confuses the issue attempting to be resolved. (…)
One such classic greenwashing case is that of the car giant Volkswagen, who has admitted to cheating emissions tests by fitting various vehicles with a “defeat” device — a proprietary software that could detect when it was undergoing an emissions testing, altering the performance to reduce the emissions level, all while touting the low-emissions features of its vehicles through marketing campaigns. In truth, however, these engines were emitting up to 40x the allowed limit for nitrogen oxide pollutants.