The advertising phenomenon of “greenwashing” has become a central focus for advertising professor Deb Morrison of the University School of Journalism and Communication. Morrison gave an interview Monday on her work with GreenwashingIndex.com, a site that allows users to evaluate green claims made in advertising, and the importance of educating students and consumers on greenwashing.
Greenwashing Index began a little more than a year ago.
ODE: How do you explain greenwashing at its core?
DM: It’s greenwashing when a company or organization spends more time or money claiming to be green through advertising and marketing than actually implementing business practices that minimize environmental impact. It’s whitewashing, but with a green brush. And it’s everywhere.
ODE: Why is greenwashing important for people to know about?
DM: It’s important because universities and the academy have a responsibility to be the conscience of the professions they serve. There’s absolutely wonderful, creative, responsible, engaged people in this profession and often times they get sort of a bad rap, and I know that so many of them are working so hard to be honest and transparent with the information they give. It’s sort of altruistic; we want it to be better. Also, we’re only going to see more of this as the green economy, as the green culture grows, so let’s put the word out, let’s make it right earlier.
ODE: How did Greenwashing Index (GreenwashingIndex.com) begin?
DM: Professor Kim Sheehan and I are partnering with EnviroMedia, which is an Austin, Texas, and now Portland, Ore., social marketing agency, and it really began in friendship. They asked Kim and I to build an assessment tool they could put on this index. Hundreds of ads and thousands of comments later, we realized there’s a way for people to look at and then assess and communicate about what goes on in advertising.
ODE: How are green claims evaluated on the Greenwashing Index?
DM: It’s easy to use, you can upload videos and print pieces … that make green claims and then assess them on a five-point scale on, which includes words and images and how those are used, what’s left out, what seems to be exaggerated, or what feels misleading.
For Kim and I, we believe in advertising; we believe it can be a strong source of good information and of entertainment and of compelling messages and to talk about good brands, but we want to push. We feel that we’re the conscience of the industry, that all education is, and we want to push for that level of engagement … and for our partners in industry, we want them to push for being more honest and transparent.
ODE: What is a memorable discussion of a product on Greenwashing Index?
DM: There are a lot of pieces that have been uploaded about car manufacturers (asking) do you have a fair claim to be green when you’ve raised mileage by three or four miles? Is that really something to brag about at this point? Again, it’s a complex issue and I think by being more observant and engaged and critical of what advertisers are doing, we give people tools.
ODE: How does your own consciousness of greenwashing work its way into your classes?
DM: I have to say, maybe it’s not so much me as it is students. I am just blown away by the responsible, passionate set of students we have here in advertising; it’s remarkable. I’ve often made these little stump speeches that say, “We don’t like most of the stuff that goes on in advertising, so much of it is boring or wasteful, it doesn’t do a good job or contributes to ‘isms’ all over the place. Therefore, we need to get people of responsibility in there.” I will tell you, I taught at the University of Texas for 25 years and they cannot touch the level of passion and responsibility that I see in students here.
ODE: How will green issues impact advertisers of the upcoming generation?
DM: I think advertising is very good at responding to cultural shifts. We will see both the impact that makes advertising reckon with this powerful force and we’ll find very smart and responsible consumers because of the messages they hear both on the good and the bad. We’ll also find because of human nature and the sense of ‘anything goes’ in our culture people who mislead. We want to make sure we imprint on consumers and students and certainly on our cohort here on the best practices.
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