Data Reveals Which Companies Are Greenwashing The Most

“Greenwashing” can be defined as the process of companies deceiving their investors and public in terms of their environmental friendliness to improve their reputation. A company may claim to be “Green” solely for marketing purposes, whilst making little to no efforts to become more sustainable.

“Greenwashing” is becoming more prevalent amongst the world’s largest companies and financial regulators are getting involved. Last week, German law enforcement raided a leading financial provider, Deutsche Bank, over reports of apparent “Greenwashing”.

Bionic has now conducted original research and identified the companies which are “Greenwashing” the most, according to the media. To collect the data, Bionic took a list of the top 200 richest companies worldwide and studied how many times they appeared alongside the word ‘Greenwashing’ in the press.

It was found that the most mentioned UK based company for “Greenwashing” was Unilever, with 18,200 mentions. Also in the top 5 were HSBC, Shell, BP and Barclays. Globally, the companies which appeared most frequently for the term “Greenwashing” were:

Apple – 41,000 mentions
Amazon – 37,200 mentions
Target – 32,500 mentions
Dell – 26,800 mentions
United Parcel Service – 22,800
Meta Platforms (Facebook) – 22,000
Microsoft – 21,200
Ford – 15,600
Gazprom – 14,100
Shell – 13,500
However, Les Roberts, Content Manager at Bionic, has provided a bit of insight into why he believes it is not only large businesses which must fight against the climate crisis:

‘Environmental sustainability is an important issue that we can all help to tackle both from home and the workplace. Yet, many small business owners are put off by the seemingly high costs of installing renewable energy systems and become confused by the complicated terms involved with becoming greener’

‘Although the responsibility largely lies with the world’s top grossing companies to reduce their carbon footprint, we can all have a material impact in the fight against climate change even by utilising small changes in the day to day running of our small businesses. Becoming more sustainable doesn’t need to be complicated and doesn’t’ need to cost the earth’

‘It is important that companies actually put into practise what they preach. As we have found, many large corporations have been caught up in the issue of misleading us about their green practices. In order for there to be actual change, the action must be genuine and material’

Bionic have put together a guide with tips on how to make the running of a small business more sustainable, including:

Scrapping Plastic Bags
Introducing a Green Team
Green Marketing
Recycling
Introducing a Green Workspace
Switching to a Green Supplier
Ditching the Printer
Thinking About Your Energy Deal