Episode 165

[FOCUS] Is It Greenwashing or Opportunity?

Episode Summary: This episode is an excerpt from a previous conversation on consumer goods and possible greenwashing tactics used by brands.

We talked about our recent shopping experiences and how brands can develop more sustainable products that customers would want to buy.

Jenn shared her experience of purchasing distilled water in a shop and raised concerns about a growing trend of greenwashing. Leekei shared a similar recent experience with bathroom cleaning products. They all agreed that there is a growing demand from consumers for products that are more sustainable.

This is maybe an opportunity for brands to do better, maybe by developing new products and working more closely with consumers.

This episode was originally aired in November 2022, follow the link to listen to the full episode.

Want to join in the conversation?

Visit thecarbonalmanac.org/podcasts and send us a voice message on this episode or any other climate-related ideas and perspectives.

Don’t Take Our Word For It, Look It Up!

You can find out more on page 160 of the Carbon Almanac and on the website you can tap the footnotes link and type in 089

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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Jenn Swanson, Leekei Tang and Olabanji Stephen

From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and Community Connector, helping people help themselves.

Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and podcaster from Paris, France.

Olabanji is from Lagos Nigeria, he’s a Creative Director and visual designer that helps brands gain clarity, deliver meaningful experiences and build tribes through Design & Strategy. He founded Jorney - a community designed to help people stay productive, accountable, and do their best work.

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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.

Transcript
Speaker:

So, Jan, while we were waiting for

Olabengi, you were talking about

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distilled water or something?

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Oh, so, so when my husband has a CPAP

machine, and that's the machine that

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helps you breathe at night if you have

sleep apnea, and it has a little reservoir

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in it, and it requires distilled water.

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rather than tap water because tap

water can have microbes or it can

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have chlorine or whatever in it.

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So you need to put distilled water in.

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So I went to the drugstore to buy a

bottle of distilled water the other day

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and distilled water is not expensive

and usually there's one or two brands.

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I noticed three brands the

other day and one of them

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happened to be in a green label.

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The bottle had a green label and

it had all sorts of words on it,

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like pure and, uh, you know, I

don't know, it little picture of a

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mountain and all this stuff on it.

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And it was more expensive than the other

two bottles of distilled water, exactly

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the same size, exactly the same product.

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And I'm thinking, this is ridiculous.

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This is greenwashing.

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Yeah.

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But how do you know that

exactly the same product?

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Well, there's a good question.

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I mean, with water,

water is tricky, right?

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Because there's so much

stuff going on with water.

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So maybe I don't know, but I

just felt highly suspicious.

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And the fact that they were charging more.

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And I thought, I, you know, I looked

on them and I'm, I don't know, I maybe

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I, maybe I don't know, but I don't

know that you can make distilled water.

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More pure, because the process

would be the same to distill

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the water, would it not?

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Yeah.

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Yes.

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No, I'm asking you this

question because the same thing

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happened to me the other day.

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I was at a supermarket trying to

buy something to clean the bathroom.

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And, um, now, a lot of bathroom cleaning

products are based on vinegar, because,

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um, Actually, uh, a lot of people use

vinegar and don't buy those products, but

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then, uh, I use vinegar, but then, um, I

thought, well, now there's a whole section

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of, you know, this brands using, uh,

vinegar base like detergent and they have,

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they add some nice, uh, smells because

vinegar is a little bit strong when

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you clean the bathroom, uh, with that.

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And, um, and I noticed that there were.

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Uh, three different brands and, uh,

the one that has the fanciest label

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packaging, like the one that's used

the words, I don't know, the most buzz,

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buzzest of the buzzwords, uh, the, the

most, the buzzest of the buzzwords.

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I love it.

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Yeah.

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I'm going to use that.

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Yes.

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Uh, and with the, the most.

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Um, using the color code of, um, uh,

green and, um, and natural, this,

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uh, this one is the most expensive.

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Actually, there was two, three different

products, and I spent, really spent

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time looking at the composition.

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So, you just take the bubble, you turn it,

and, and actually, I've taken the picture

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because they were all exactly the same.

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So, you have one price, the other one was

double, and then the third one was triple.

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So, yeah.

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So, And, and that's where I can't remember

an exact experience similar to the ones

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that you guys have had, because I think

that that kind of happens, maybe not

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with water, because, you know, it's a

bit ridiculous when it's water, right?

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Water is water.

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Why are you pricing water

at a ridiculous amount?

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But maybe we can look at this in, uh,

in, in the context of greenwashing as

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well, when, um, organizations appear

to be sustainable or to practice

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sustainability in that sense, just to

get us to buy stuff from them or to

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get us to be on the, on their side.

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Or to get us to choose them.

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And we see that all the time.

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Isn't that something that

needs to be addressed?

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Because that's, that's like cheating.

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And the good news here, I think

the good hopeful news is that

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consumers are asking for this.

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They want more sustainable products.

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They want, like, there's a

movement towards using vinegar.

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So, of course.

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You know, the leap is on to make

something that has vinegar in it

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because that's supposed to be.

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the best when you could go down the

aisle and buy a big jug of white

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vinegar that smells like for a tiny

fraction of the cost and use that.

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But, you know, they have to make

it fancier because they know that

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consumers are going in that direction.

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So I think there's a consumer demand and

that's making, uh, companies respond.

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Yeah.

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For me, this is more like, uh, a call

to the companies that are responding

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to actually honestly respond and not

respond to the demand with a face

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off of things that they're not doing.

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Um, and, and that they claim to be doing.

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Um, I'm so excited actually, that there's

now like demand for accountability

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and people are getting warmer

towards sustainability and things

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that have to do with climate change.

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And that's like an opportunity for a

lot of organizations to say, yeah, we're

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going to be on the sustainable side.

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We're going to switch this.

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We're going to do this, do that, um,

set certain goals and try to achieve

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them as, as far as sustainability goes.

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And, and then that they do that

and, and not just say it or

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make us buy things from them.

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And then.

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You know, results of what

they've usually done.

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So, well, I guess that's, that's

as far as greenwashing goes.

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