What is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is the practice of a business providing inaccurate or misleading information about its operations, goods, or impacts on the environment. This concept has been around since the 1960s, but it has gained increasing traction recently as a result of regulations, rising consumer demand for sustainable products, and political pressure. (Hayes, 2024)
According to the same CMA probe, greenwashing is widespread these days, with the building sector and its “questionable” net zero carbon claims drawing particular attention. In addition, the UK government’s energy efficiency and agriculture policies were slammed by the Climate Change Committee in a 600-page study published last year, with the committee claiming that the country will not fulfill its ambitious net-zero target. (Hayes, 2024)
In the built environment, there are many different forms of greenwashing. For example, a construction company could put solar panels on its structures in an attempt to draw attention away from the fact that the manufacturing process they use harms the environment. Similar to this, there may be situations in which labeling a man-made environment as “green” does significant harm to the ecosystem; this was the case when Grimshaw was named the “greenest airport in India.”
How Does Greenwashing Work?
Greenwashing, often referred to as “green sheen,” is an attempt to take advantage of consumers’ increasing desire for ecologically friendly items, whether that implies they are more natural, healthier, chemical-free, recyclable, or need less natural resource usage.
The phrase first appeared in the 1960s when one of the most obvious instances of greenwashing was created by the hotel sector. To protect the environment, they posted notes in hotel rooms requesting that guests reuse their towels. The hotels benefited from decreased laundry expenses. Some of the largest carbon polluters in the world, including traditional energy firms, have made an effort to reposition themselves as environmentalists in more recent times. Greenwashing is the process of renaming, rebranding, or repackaging products. Products that have been given a green makeover may give the impression that they are healthier, more natural, or chemical-free than rival brands. (Hayes, 2024)
Businesses have been guilty of greenwashing by highlighting their clean energy or pollution reduction initiatives in press releases and advertisements. It’s possible that the business isn’t committing to green projects. To put it briefly, greenwashing refers to the practise of businesses making unfounded claims that their products are safe for the environment or have certain green advantages.
The terms “sustainable enterprise” and “environmental concern” have been used in a wide range of situations within the field of architecture. Enter these terms into your browser to discover an abundance of fraudulent sustainable projects that are marketed as sustainability and sold for enormous sums of money. A typical example is the vast residential buildings that promote a sense of being in touch with nature, but to do this, they disrupt ecosystems by clearing large tracts of forest, and then installing green roofs and landscapes with native flora.
When an enterprise is considered sustainable because it maintains a significant percentage of the preserved area or has a low occupancy rate, another commonly used strategy in these terms is to emphasize its compliance with the law. These numbers are simply the standard operating procedure as stated in the master plan. Alternatively, they highlight features like the previously stated green roofs along with other components like wind turbines and solar panels that, even when taken out of context and unconnected to the project, promote the building as an example of sustainability. Anyhow, there are a lot of them, and they’re frequently crude. It just takes a cursory examination of the installation site, building methods, and materials utilized to determine the green makeup used in such projects. (Ghisleni, 2022)
Using LEED certification as an example, it is evident that its requirements solely take into account the environmental element of sustainability, ignoring the other two pillars that form the basis of the idea: social and economic. Therefore, it is suggested that certification systems be developed (or improved) that more effectively take into account the “architectural quality resulting from design decisions, with less emphasis on materials, technologies, and accessories, and that include cultural, social, and economic issues as complementary evaluation criteria” to make it more comprehensive, as the term sustainability itself suggests. By doing this, it aims to steer clear of copying global patterns and technology and instead identify architectural solutions that are contextually relevant and naturally sustainable.
The deeper and more nuanced definition of the term has led to a growing appreciation of this contrast to technology gimmicks and the pursuit of more authentic sustainability. A significant illustration of this shift in focus is the 2022 Pritzker Prize selection, which was announced this past week. Diébédo Francis Kéré became well-known for showcasing a community-driven, collaborative design approach that prioritizes environmental comfort and spatial quality via creative material and vernacular method utilization. Put another way, his creations thoughtfully consider the three main tenets of the sustainability concept: aesthetic excellence, environmental efficiency, and ethical devotion. (Ghisleni, 2022)
Lastly, it is important to note that there is no denying the necessity of taking actions and adopting methods that respect the environment, particularly in the civil construction industry. This means that no plan should be rendered impractical; rather, every responsible move, no matter how tiny, matters. In the interim, we need to be mindful of forced marketing that adds a false value to inappropriate content under specific conditions. We also need to start appreciating more and more understated and approachable strategies that consider not only the environment but also the cultural, social, and economic contexts in which the project is placed.
References:
Ghisleni, C. (2022, March 24). 50 Shades of Green: The Contradictions of Greenwashing in Architecture. Retrieved from ArchDaily: https://www.archdaily.com/978874/50-shades-of-green-the-contradictions-of-greenwashing-in-architecture
Hayes, A. (2024, January 22). What Is Greenwashing? How It Works, Examples, and Statistics. Retrieved from Investopedia: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/greenwashing.asp
Image 1 _© Sian Wynn-Jones 2
Image 2 _© Martin Reisch 3
