Society is now entering the ‘Green’ boundaries—Green economy, Green New Deal, etc— and crowds of people including environmentalists and celebrities keep raising their voices with concerns regarding climate change to the world. To follow these movements, several companies have adopted eco-friendly systems in diverse ways. Eco-friendly goods such as eco-bags are just an elementary step, and even all of the small-scale details are being changed to be ‘green’. Thus, ESG—Environmental, Social, and Governance— has become a business trend and a commanding business strategy these days; ESG is based on the principle that the environment is only one factor in determining an organization's commitment to sustainability. However, as this business strategy grows, some companies began to delude customers with a superficial promotion of the environment. Greenwashing—also called Green Sheen— is a type of advertising for a company itself as being eco-friendly than actually diminishing its environmental impacts—in other words, discrepancy, and deceptions. The environment is used as the companies’ marketing means and to improve their image to the public. 

Most individuals mistakenly believe that Starbucks is one of the well-known models for green companies. But actually, Starbucks has various eco-friendly tactics, which made this company known as a pioneer in the green economy. In 2022, Starbucks announced the ‘Better Together’ project, which is its medium-and long-term goal for sustainability by 2025. However, oddly enough, Starbucks’s tumbler marketing strategy is causing a problem. Starbucks has argued that using tumblers can reduce the number of disposable products consumed, and has often released new collections of tumblers every holiday. In order to use tumblers for environmental preservation, they need to be reused hundreds of times. Naturally, this marketing merely increases the sales volume, never mitigating the waste problem. A few months ago, a customer visited Starbucks with her own tumbler. But she posted a picture of a tumbler with some texts on her social media account, “Brought my own tumbler to Starbucks. They made the drink in the normal plastic cup and transferred the coffee into my tumbler, and threw the plastic cup in the trash.” This company decreased its production of disposable products but simultaneously increased its production of reusable cups and tumblers by an equivalent amount. As a result, the overall manufacturing output remained the same. Except for Starbucks, countless companies are involved with greenwashing. According to a survey, even 58% of global CEOs acknowledged that their companies have been guilty of greenwashing. 

The countries themselves are trying not to let the customers fool for greenwashing. However, there needs much more consumer development in discernment and awareness to overcome this dilemma. Referring to Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), there are some tips to avoid greenwashing companies. For example, the customers should check the label and certification mark on each product before purchase. Vague words such as ‘eco-friendly’ or ‘natural’ can sway them. Instead, it is good to identify the exact details on the label and understand the principles of how this product can be beneficial to the environment. For another one, it is useful to consider that they are not being told in general; Keep questioning is the best way to be a wise customer!

<references>