The WORST Greenwashing Scandals of All Time
As we approach Earth Month, I feel it is my duty to expose some brands that are greenwashing that you should avoid this year as they ramp up their eco-friendly marketing. Keep an eye out!
First, what is greenwashing?
You can check out the full video to get into the nitty-gritty of greenwashing here, but here’s what you need to know:
The National Resources Defense Council defines it as, “Greenwashing is the act of making false or misleading statements about the environmental benefits of a product or practice. It can be a way for companies to continue or expand their polluting as well as related harmful behaviors, all while gaming the system or profiting off well-intentioned, sustainably minded consumers. The term was actually coined back in 1986 in an essay by environmentalist and then student Jay Westerveld. While visiting a hotel in Fiji, Westerveld noticed that it asked guests to reuse towels for the planet’s sake—a request that would also conveniently save the hotel money. Meanwhile, the hotel, located near sensitive island ecosystems, was in the middle of an expansion.”
It essentially boils down to a company marketing itself as greener and more eco-friendly than it actually is!
What brands are greenwashing and why?
Brand 1: Apple
First, Apple has been making false carbon-neutral claims throughout the world, but the EU and Germany are fighting this.
The Sustainable Agency states that, “the reason being that the claim wasn’t sufficiently backed, with flimsy support from offsetting through Eucalyptus tree planting in Paraguay. These plantations have been criticised by ecologists who call them ‘green deserts,’ but the court also found deeper issues. “There is no secure future for the continuation of the forest project”, the court said. Three-quarters of the land in question was only leased to Apple through 2029, with no certainty of any continuity after that date.”
Not only this, but the same year, 2025, Apple did a HUGE social media push with influencers for Earth Day. No hate to these creators, get your bag, but I’m not sure I would’ve taken that partnership. Yes, it’s great that Apple supposedly recycles old phones (the message of the campaign), but that doesn’t negate the fact that they push overconsumption, use slave labor in the global south to build their phones, and only just NOW started to accept phones for recycling.
Tech is extremely wasteful, and Apple fits right in. They are not sustainable. Don’t fall for their scams.
Brand 2: Coca-Cola
Coca-Cola has been deemed the “largest polluter in the world” for 6 consecutive years. Yikes. They claim to be sustainable? Not fully, but their most prominent claim as of late has been, according to Earth.org, is that “Bottles with 100% recycled plastic are now available in 18 markets around the world, and this is continually growing.” Also, according to Energy Tracker Asia, Coca-Cola “promoted its new line of the low-sugar version, Coca-Cola Life, as a “green, healthy alternative.”
Now I don’t want to squash baby steps. It’s great to see any environmental progress. But when you’re simultaneously the largest polluter in the world and the 7th most valuable brand in the world, you should do more, and you CAN do more thanks to all that revenue.
A key indicator of greenwashing to me is precisely this: a company making one “eco” product but keeping the rest of their products cheap and wasteful. Not to mention, Coca-Cola proper owns over 500 other brands, removing consumer choice in the market and making it harder for us to vote with our dollars.
Brand 3: H&M (or any fast fashion)
Fast fashion, in general, is not great for the planet, and H&M belongs in that category. But, in 2021, a report from The Changing Markets Foundation found that 96% of H&M’s environmental claims did not hold up. Yikes. That means they were actively lying about 96% of their sustainability claims. Blatant lies.
But also, according to Earth.org, “in 2019, H&M launched its own line of ‘green’ clothing titled ‘Conscious.’ The company claims to use ‘organic’ cotton and recycled polyester. However, the line is nothing but a marketing tactic used to make themselves appear more environmentally friendly. When looking at H&M’s “Conscious” line, its mission states: “Shop our selection of sustainable fashion pieces that make you both look and feel good.” However, there is no single legal definition for marketing-friendly words such as “sustainable,” “green,” or “environmentally-friendly.” H&M was then criticized by the Norwegian Customer Authority for “misleading” marketing of their Conscious Collection because “the information given regarding sustainability was not sufficient, especially given that the Conscious Collection is advertised as a collection with environmental benefits.”
Many fast fashion brands greenwash. Keep your eye out! And learn more about why fast fashion should be avoided here.
Brand(s) 4: Shell & BP (or any big oil company)
I’m sure many of us know that big oil is why we’re here in the first place, in terms of a climate emergency. They all commit heinous acts and greenwash. But we have a few key moments for this category.
First, Shell is trying to guilt us about climate change when their buddies at BP (more on them in a moment) were the ones who created the carbon footprint to make us blame one another! The Sustainable Agency states that “The company is responsible for around 2% of global CO2 emissions from its activities every year, while it continues to plough ahead and invest billions in oil and gas. And yet, despite this, their marketing team thought it appropriate to ask their followers on Twitter what they were “willing to change to help reduce emissions.””
Another greenwashing scandal from Shell, according to The Sustainable Agency, was “In June 2022, the gas and oil giant launched a marketing campaign – featuring billboard posters, a YouTube ad, and a TV commercial – to promote their clean energy business in Bristol and the wider UK. The advertisements included misleading claims about Shell’s involvement in providing clean energy and e-vehicle charging stations. In the physical billboards, they dared to say, “In the South West 78,000 homes use 100% renewable electricity from Shell Energy.” In reality, it was coming from the country’s National Grid – a fact that was mentioned, albeit in a conveniently smaller font.”
Now onto BP, British Petroleum. Well, as I already stated, they created the carbon footprint in 2004. This was aimed to make us feel guilty and blame one another instead of looking at the real culprits. From their POV, it was a huge success. This was part of a larger campaign to rebrand themselves as “Beyond Petroleum” since evidence was starting to come out that fossil fuels were, in fact, causing climate change. Especially since it was found out that they were “misleading the public with their advertisements that focused on BP’s low-carbon energy products, when more than 96% of their annual spend is on oil and gas.”
Brand 5: Keurig
I’m sure we’re all aware of this brand, whether we use it or not, probably because it is known amongst environmentalists to be one of the most wasteful forms of making coffee at home. Well, it gets worse. According to The Sustainable Agency, “Keurig led Canadian buyers to believe they could recycle their single-use plastic coffee pods by simply breaking open the top, emptying out the coffee, and throwing the empty carcass into recycling bins. But the capsules weren’t accepted in most Canadian provinces, except for Quebec and British Columbia. And even then, the instructions didn’t go far enough. The City of Toronto had to remove 90 tons of plastic pods from recycling bins last year because of this kind of capsule carnage.”
Thankfully, Keurig was sued for its false advertising and had to change the wording of its advertisements.
Still make coffee at home, it’s a great way to reduce waste! Just opt for something else. Even a refillable Keurig pod!
Brand 6: IKEA
This is probably a shocker to most people. What did IKEA do wrong?
Well, according to Earth.org, “in June 2020, when the furniture retailer was linked with illegal logging in Ukraine. In a report by NGO Earthsight, the wood certification scheme IKEA uses, the Forest Stewardship Council, was described as an organization that greenwashes the timber industry. It was accused of failing to catch IKEA’s sourcing of conflict wood and act on it.” This is also really sad to hear about the FSC label. Be wary about that from here on out!
And, according to The Sustainable Agency, “IKEA is also the largest consumer of wood in the world, and its timber consumption has doubled in the last decade.” Shop secondhand for furniture!
Though I do think in recent years, IKEA has started a furniture recycling program. I’m not here to defend a greenwashing company, but anything to help them cut down less timber is a good step.
Brand 7: Delta Airlines
I didn’t need another reason to hate Delta, but hey, why not? What dirty business are they up to?
Well, according to CBS, Delta claims to be "the world's first carbon-neutral airline.” They followed this up in 2020 with “pledging $1 billion – for a plan including carbon offset credits and supposed reduced use of jet fuel – to cut the emissions created by its business,” according to The Sustainable Agency.
This isn’t the worst greenwashing scam we’ve seen, but carbon offsetting in and of itself is quite greenwashy, learn more here. Flying is wasteful; we all know this. No, I’m not blaming you or me for flying when we need to. But operating in one of the most wasteful industries of all time and claiming to be the most sustainable of the most wasteful companies just doesn’t make any sense.
Carbon offsetting takes decades to actually offset any emissions, and it’s often done so unsustainably by planting monocrops and even invasive species. No amount of trees planted can undo the harm of the aviation industry (or that of other more wasteful industries). Tree planting isn’t bad, but it doesn’t make Delta sustainable!
Brand 8: Volkswagen
Another wasteful industry: motor vehicles. It’s hard to be perfectly sustainable here, but it sure isn’t hard to avoid greenwashing.
This one is bad: according to Earth.org, “Volkswagen admitted to cheating emissions tests by fitting various vehicles with a ‘defect’ device, with software that could detect when it was undergoing an emissions test and alter the performance to reduce the emissions level.
This was going on while to the public, the company was touting the low-emissions and eco-friendly features of its vehicles in marketing campaigns. In actuality, these engines were emitting up to 40 times the allowed limit for nitrogen oxide pollutants.”
Yikes. That’s blatant lying. This may be one of the worst ones we’ve covered!
Brand 9: Starbucks
I have 8 million reasons to boycott Starbucks (more in this video), but here is a great one for environmentalists: they’re greenwashing.
According to Earth.org, “In 2018, Starbucks released a ‘straw-less lid,’ as part of its sustainability drive. This lid contained more plastic than the old lid and straw combination. The company didn’t dispute this, but claimed that it is made from polypropylene, a commonly-accepted recyclable plastic that “can be captured in recycling infrastructure.” Critics were quick to point out that only 9% of the world’s plastic is recycled, so the company shouldn’t assume all the lids would be recycled. Further, the US exports about one-third of its recycling to developing countries, so it is simply passing its responsibility to poorer countries.”
If they were truly concerned about the planet, they would do more to incentivize people to bring their own cups and even offer in-store recycling. Maybe they could also quit committing human rights offenses while they’re at it!
Brand 10: Banana Boat
I’m sure we’ve all seen the “reef-safe” sunscreen labels on our bottles and in stores. Truly eco brands like Babo Botanicals choose to omit this label because it is so often used for greenwashing. Here’s a prominent example:
According to Energy Tracker Asia, “Several of Banana Boat’s ‘reef safe’ sunscreens contain harmful chemicals that negatively impact coral reef environments. Their sunscreen has avobenzone and octocrylene, which cause coral bleaching and are toxic to other marine life. As such, claims by Banana Boat that its range of sunscreen is “reef-friendly” are being challenged. The initial claims of greenwashing led to a reassessment across the industry. Several sunscreen manufacturers are reviewing the components of their products to ensure that they are not misleading the public.”
So, look for sunscreens without these ingredients made by transparent brands.
And more!
These were just the 10 worst in my opinion. There are so many more we could dive into so let me know if you’d like to see more!
In the meantime, you’d like this post calling out Pela Case for their greenwashing.
For now, keep learning about how to spot greenwashing and how to tell if a brand is truly sustainable or not. And check out some ways to celebrate Earth Day here!
As always, remember that your small actions make s big difference in the long run :)
Emma
