Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun The dissemination of misleading information that conceals abuse of the environment in order to present a positive public image.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb Present participle of
greenwash .
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
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Examples
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You might have encountered the term greenwashing only in recent years, but the practice of making green claims on products and services that really aren't their products goes back longer.
Earth Day Special: Looking back at 20-plus years of greenwashing 2009
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You might have encountered the term greenwashing only in recent years, but the practice of making green claims on products and services that really aren't their products goes back longer.
Earth Day Special: Looking back at 20-plus years of greenwashing 2009
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Trying to soften the public image of a company without actually changing destructive business practices is known as "greenwashing" -- and Chevron has been at it for a while.
A Greenwashing Strategy Proposed To Chevron The Huffington Post News Editors 2011
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Trying to soften the public image of a company without actually changing destructive business practices is known as "greenwashing" -- and Chevron has been at it for a while.
A Greenwashing Strategy Proposed To Chevron The Huffington Post News Editors 2011
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This practice is known as greenwashing, or brainwashing consumers into believing products are natural when they actually are not.
Simple Skin Beauty Ellen Marmur 2009
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This practice is known as greenwashing, or brainwashing consumers into believing products are natural when they actually are not.
Simple Skin Beauty Ellen Marmur 2009
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This practice is known as greenwashing, or brainwashing consumers into believing products are natural when they actually are not.
Simple Skin Beauty Ellen Marmur 2009
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The attempt was a classic case of "greenwashing" -- a cynical effort by nativist activists to seduce environmentalists to join their cause for purely strategic reasons.
Mark Potok: Greenwash: Nativists Cynically Working to Co-Opt Environmental Movement 2010
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The attempt was a classic case of "greenwashing" -- a cynical effort by nativist activists to seduce environmentalists to join their cause for purely strategic reasons.
Mark Potok: Greenwash: Nativists Cynically Working to Co-Opt Environmental Movement 2010
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For corporate alliances with nonprofit groups to succeed, companies need to disclose how much money they are donating or risk allegations of "greenwashing" -- or paying lip service to environmental causes to promote their products, says Mike Lawrence, an executive vice president at Cone LLC, a Boston-based marketing agency.
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Environmentalist groups have long accused the fossil fuel industry of ‘greenwashing’, and it is indisputable that the PR campaigns grossly misrepresent what these companies actually do, and what internal documents confirm they plan to continue doing far into the future: extracting and selling increasing amounts of fossil fuels.
Meehan Crist · Is it OK to have a child? · LRB 23 February 2020 Meehan Crist 2020
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In July, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced that Boohoo was under investigation over “greenwashing”, the practice of using inaccuracy or exaggeration in branding something as sustainable or environmentally sound.
Kourtney Kardashian wants to make Boohoo’s fast-fashion sustainable. Spoiler alert: she can’t | Niloufar Haidari Niloufar Haidari 2022
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Corporations have never been under more pressure to follow through and make meaningful progress on carbon emissions from regulators and amid greater scrutiny around “greenwashing” from environmentalists – and their own employees.
Google’s ‘dragonscale’ solar-powered roof signals growing demand for sustainable workspaces Carly Olson 2022
simianaudio commented on the word greenwashing
Disinformation disseminated by an organisation so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.
August 24, 2008