In the previous part of this article, we discussed what greenwashing is, why corporations practice it, and which marketing techniques are used to trick consumers into thinking certain products are sustainable when the brands behind them are not. This part will go into further details to help you get a more solid grasp of how greenwashing works in practice, as well as cover some resources and counterarguments.

What is actually happening?

A good way to see through greenwashing is to consider why it needs to exist in the first place. In many cases, it’s a response to criticism the company has received over environmentally unfriendly practices, or even just a cover-up. It’s important to realize that the effort, intentions, and funding behind a greenwashing scheme, as well as the impact it claims to have, are painfully exaggerated by the corporation’s marketing team. At the same time, it is very likely that their PR team is working tirelessly to make their negative impact seem as innocuous as possible.

But it isn’t. For example, according to this story on the UN Environmental Programme website, the fashion industry is the second biggest polluter of water globally. Keeping in mind that fashion brands have frequently been accused of inhumane working conditions and other unethical practices, it becomes difficult to reconcile the bare truth with these corporations' appeals to our green conscious.

This leads to another unfortunate realization: most environmentally unsound practices are adopted to cut down production costs. The reason companies sell overpriced green products in small amounts is to amass further wealth without spending too much of their production budget. This all adds up to increased profits for corporations, while their environmental impact decreases infinitesimally, if at all.

Are you falling for it?

The internet is a place for open dialogue, and counterarguments are welcome — in fact, we’ll cover those in the next section. Young people might be especially gullible and vulnerable to marketing schemes on the internet. Still, they are also avid consumers — particularly in the fashion industry — and as such they must consume responsibly. Before you make any decisions, you need to have access to the facts.

Fortunately, there are multiple free sources dedicated to scouring corporations’ environmental policies. A particularly helpful website is Rank a Brand, where you can fact-check a company’s ethics from where they dispose their waste to whether they have been indicted with child labor. As far as environmental responsibility goes, Rank a Brand offers an exhaustive checklist of 31 sustainability criteria, of which a disheartening amount of corporations only checks one. Unsurprisingly, that one checkbox is greenhouse emission control, which anyone involved in CSR will tell you is green policy 101.

Another valuable resource is the Corporate Information Transparency Index (CITI), which ranks China-based supply chains based on their environmental management and wastewater treatment policies.

To get a broader picture about many brands’ ethics, browse the Fashion Transparency Index. This is an initiative by Fashion Revolution which looks into how much information apparel companies are willing to disclose about their suppliers, supply chain policies and practices, and their impact on a social and environmental level.

Last - but certainly not least - if you wish to find out the environmental footprint of a software or hardware product, you can visit the Green Electronics Council website. From their mission statement: "...the Green Electronics Council seeks to increase the design, manufacture and use of sustainable technology around the world." They do that through providing what is currently one of the broadest ecolabels in the market, namely EPEAT, which can be obtained by satisfying specific sustainability criteria.

And now, for the counterarguments.

“It’s just marketing, though.” That is a dangerous misconception to have, all the more so in a society that functions obsessively around the consumption of products and services. Ads and CSR are expensive for a reason, and the reason is the public is susceptible to them. Plus, the advent of online advertising has completely transformed the way marketing affects our lives: first and foremost, because targeted ads are now a thing.

Second of all, because corporations have latched onto the growing online activist scene in a (successful) attempt to look like they care about the same causes as us. This serves as a distraction, because online activism has a very specific structure that allows news to circulate almost indefinitely. As soon as corporate accounts join the game, they defang activists, and flood our feeds with self-congratulatory posts.

“It’s still a step forward.” This is absolutely not the case. A step forward would be getting people involved, securing platforms where your voice can be heard, educating and mobilizing young people. These are all things that are happening, and overlooking them in favor of greenwashing is unfair to activists and community organizers.

So what can you do?

Because of the way our production systems are built, circulating capital and preserving the environment almost clash. This is why sustainable products are so expensive and their supply chains are almost always small scale. But that’s where terms like greening the economy come in. Advances are being made, but that is the work of engineers, scientists, and activists, often completely divorced from the transactional mindset of big corporations.

Ethical consumption can be tricky, and even impossible depending on your financial situation. However, it's crucial to stay alert, to trust your own research more than any ad, and to remember that the primary mission of all brands is profit. Time and again, corporations have used greenwashing to cheat their way into the era of sustainability. But if we as consumers remain vigilant and make good use of the resources we have available, we can push for tangible change in the markets we participate in.