{"id":1555,"date":"2023-06-19T15:21:17","date_gmt":"2023-06-19T13:21:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fhcom.net\/are-you-greenwashing-without-knowing-it\/"},"modified":"2023-07-19T18:36:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-19T16:36:23","slug":"are-you-greenwashing-without-knowing-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fhcom.net\/en\/are-you-greenwashing-without-knowing-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you greenwashing without knowing it?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"1555\" class=\"elementor elementor-1555 elementor-975\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-1471d85c elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"1471d85c\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-7ed1b6d9\" data-id=\"7ed1b6d9\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-27ab64d8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"27ab64d8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Perhaps you&#8217;ve seen them? Plastered all over our towns and cities, Burger King&#8217;s posters promoting its new reusable tableware for the benefit of the planet have generated a &#8220;bad buzz&#8221; on social networks.  <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since the 1st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">er<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> January 2023, the law prohibits the use of disposable tableware in commercial catering.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burger King has turned a legal constraint into a marketing argument. A commendable initiative, but one that backfired on the brand, which was accused of taking advantage of the situation to engage in &#8220;greenwashing&#8221;. A misstep that reminds us that the line between CSR and greenwashing can be a fine one&#8230;<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2><b>Greenwashing, a practice that&#8217;s still relevant today<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Burger King is obviously not the first (nor the last) to suffer such a misfortune. However, one might have thought that this practice had been relegated to the dustbin of communications, so much was it denounced in the years 2000-2010, when the phenomenon was at its height.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As a reminder, greenwashing is a marketing method that consists of communicating with an audience using deceptive ecological arguments to enhance one&#8217;s image. This can involve both content and form: visuals, colors, speech, naming, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nevertheless, some brands are more innocent than they appear. In fact, despite their obvious good will, they sometimes come in for criticism!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&nbsp;<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>5 tips for communicating CSR without risking bad buzz <\/b><b>\n  <i>bad buzz<\/i>\n<\/b><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So should we stop communicating our environmental commitments at the risk of being nabbed by the Web &#8220;police&#8221; or the French advertising regulator? Absolutely not. At a time when informing the public about one&#8217;s CSR commitments is an argument of preference, many companies are committed to the cause and have every interest in making it known.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The key is to strike the right balance between communication and reality. Here are a few simple rules to keep in mind when communicating your CSR commitments transparently:<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">1\/ Make sure the information you distribute is true.  <\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In this context, transparency will be fundamental. In particular, we need to check that the figures provided, which often accompany this type of publication, are accurate and, if possible, validated by a third-party organization for added credibility. This doesn&#8217;t mean you can&#8217;t communicate your objectives, but they must be part of a realistic roadmap.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">2\/ Keep your claims consistent throughout your value chain:  <\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s no longer enough to sell organic produce from the ends of the earth, claiming to respect the planet without taking into account the carbon cost of transport.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">3\/ Avoid over-promising:  <\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It&#8217;s better to make a small, truthful advance than a big announcement, if you know in advance that the promise will be hard to keep. Even if an isolated CSR action can be elevated to the status of a global message as part of a brand campaign, it must really be part of the company&#8217;s reality.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">4\/ <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Communicate about things you really know, without overusing ecological terms. <\/span> <\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;Green&#8221;, &#8220;ecoresponsible&#8221;, &#8220;impact&#8221; are all words that attract attention, but they also have very specific, even legal, meanings that you should be aware of before using them!<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5\/ <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Respect the reality principle.<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Don&#8217;t be afraid to assume that a minor ecological element is just a first step towards reducing the more general impact of a product or service. So it&#8217;s best to avoid talking about an innovation  <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8220;green <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">if you&#8217;ve only developed a half-recyclable bottle.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">6\/<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Don&#8217;t hesitate to have your CSR content checked<\/span><\/h3>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Specialists in sustainable communications can identify any signs of greenwashing.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><br><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As you can see, transparency, consistency, verification and sincerity are the four pillars of successful green communications that add value to your brand. At FHCOM, we&#8217;ve been working with Lactel\u00ae for several years, in particular on its Recyc&#8217;lait operation, which aims to promote sorting among the general public, while at the same time placing its action within the framework of the circular economy.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Perhaps you&#8217;ve seen them? Plastered all over our towns and cities, Burger King&#8217;s posters promoting its new reusable tableware for the benefit of the planet have generated a &#8220;bad buzz&#8221; on social networks. Since the 1ster January 2023, the law prohibits the use of disposable tableware in commercial catering. &nbsp; Burger King has turned a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":1054,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[168],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cat1-en"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>CSR communication and greenwashing: targeting the right CSR issues<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Communicate transparently on your company&#039;s CSR challenges, avoiding greenwashing. 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