{"id":11466,"date":"2011-12-08T12:54:52","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T12:54:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/greenwashing\/"},"modified":"2017-01-09T15:53:58","modified_gmt":"2017-01-09T15:53:58","slug":"greenwashing","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/26174\/greenwashing","title":{"rendered":"Greenwashing"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_greenwashing_mean\">What Does Greenwashing Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>Greenwashing refers to a marketing makeover in which a product is presented as more environment friendly when no substantial effort has been taken to make it so. In a more extreme sense greenwashing may refer to an attempt to make a product that is environmentally damaging appear to be environmentally friendly. Greenwashing plays upon a renewed consumer interest in protecting the environment.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_greenwashing\">Techopedia Explains Greenwashing<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>There are two degrees of greenwashing. In the weak form, it merely involves a company claiming credit for existing production methods as if they were influenced by an eco-friendly mandate. For example, a software company may eliminate shrink wrap on packaging to save costs and then spin the move as a green initiative. In the more extreme form, a company will outright lie about the eco-friendliness of a product by using vague phrasing (\u201cbest in class ecology\u201d), suggesting packaging (green fields, flowers, etc.), questionable endorsements (\u201cgreen certified by ecomaniacs\u201d) and so on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Greenwashing Mean? Greenwashing refers to a marketing makeover in which a product is presented as more environment friendly when no substantial effort has been taken to make it so. In a more extreme sense greenwashing may refer to an attempt to make a product that is environmentally damaging appear to be environmentally friendly. 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