Greenwashing is endorsed through clever PR and advertising

Brendan Seery’s Orchid to Checkers was perhaps not his finest moment. While I agree that their recent advert is “charming” and a good attempt to highlight what the company is doing to address environmental issues, he has perhaps fallen straight into the greenwash trap that they intended.

Any retailer that today fails to acknowledge their impacts on the environment – both natural and social – is in for a hiding. Checkers’ efforts to minimise waste; conserve energy; convert to sustainable energy sources; and source responsible products or reduce their impacts, is in step with global trends and consumer expectations. But their latest TV advert is nonetheless pure greenwash.

Let’s for a moment look at the claims being made by Checkers.

The company is introducing sustainable energy into its overall energy diet – as they should, but they are in no way unique in this regard. If we seriously interrogate their activities, is what they are doing any different to others – or significant in any way? Unfortunately, not.

They claim to be committed to using solar and wind-powered systems in several stores and warehouses but in terms of their overall conversion, they still lag substantially behind their competitors.

Without downplaying their efforts, look in the back yard of their Somerset West shopping centre and you will still find a diesel generator for the times that they are unable to generate their own power. Have they invested in adequate power banks for those times Eskom cuts power? Probably not. Are they calculating this in their emission reduction data? Who knows?

While they claim to be reducing their overall carbon footprint, they are not always including the emissions related to their entire chain. And they could, by simply being more forceful of the range and sources of product sold in their stores and by objectively including the massive emissions now being generated by their own Sixty60 delivery service and product deliveries.

What percentage of their overall product range is imported; and have they calculated the actual delivery emissions involved? Being responsible and reporting on their carbon footprint means being prepared to report on all three emission copes and not only their level one emissions.

I applaud their efforts to ensure environmentally friendly and sustainably sourced products – notably their commitment to sustainable palm oil products. But the range of sustainably sourced and independently ecolabelled products they sell is less than 1% of their total product range.

Checkers have created their own in-house ecolabels and avoid independent verification of their products, yet we applaud them on their “earth-friendly” efforts.

It’s not only the orangutan that is affected, but everything from our fauna, to air quality, marine life and a vast parade of wildlife. And we haven’t even started considering the impacts manufactured goods have on our communities. This is the essence of greenwashing and consumers are far too easily swept up in the PR to know the difference.

Packaging is a serious challenge for most retailers and while Checkers do have reusable bags and encourage recycling, that’s about where it stops. Checkers has done very little to actively encourage their suppliers to reduce nonrecyclable packaging on their products. Post-consumer waste starts with the choices retailers make.

Biodegradable plastics are the cause celebre of retailers, but there is no validation of claims made by them or their suppliers, and there is no in-store recycling initiative worth mentioning. These are the realities that consumers need to understand.

I agree that those that are making an effort should be applauded, but we need to do this in a balanced way and not get distracted by the warm and fuzzy PR-speak. It is up to each of us to look a little deeper into claims of sustainability.

ALSO READ: Orchids and Onions: Kudos to Checkers’ recycling and reduction of carbon footprint campaign

Greenwashing is real and is simply endorsed through clever PR and advertising. Claiming victory for things that we should be doing anyway is pretty hollow and Checkers’ claims are nothing less than that.

Almost all companies in the retail space use in-house, unverified and exaggerated claims of environmental compliance. Why are consumers not challenging retailers to use globally recognised ecolabels that provide an independent verification of their claims?

McManus is a sustainability consultant and founder of EcoChoice Africa