Irish Examiner View: The black art of greenwashing

The food production sector seems focused on short-term objectives rather than long-term consequences. 

One of the frustrations faced by the growing number of people trying to behave in a more environmentally responsible way is a sense of powerlessness. Many individuals, families, firms, and maybe even small countries feel that no matter what they do, no matter how they modify their behaviour they will have little enough impact on averting climate change.

That frustration is deepened by firms who misrepresent their products in a way that suggests they are more compatible with environmental responsibility - greenwashing - than they actually are. This behaviour has become so commonplace that EU regulators have promised to confront this misleading swizz.    

The European Commission, in conjunction with the Consumer Protection Cooperation (CPC) found that almost half of websites or shopping portals carried false or deceptive claims about goods they offered for sale. CPC found, in an analysis of 344 sustainability claims that in almost half the cases, there was at least a suspicion that claims were false or deceptive.

In more than a third of cases - 37% - CPC fund vague, unsubstantiated statements such as “environmentally friendly”, “eco-friendly”, or “sustainable” used to convey the impression that a product had no negative impact on the environment.

This greenwashing may be disappointing but it is not surprising as too many businesses, especially the food production sector, seem focused on short-term objectives rather than long-term consequences.  Society can hardly ignore this conflict of interest, this indifference to the common good for too long more.