Greenwashing the gullible?

Until January I had not heard the term ‘greenwash’ – what about you??

While chasing up info on green power, I came across the term term “greenwash” on a website called www.ecoshout.org. I found this site very interesting and certainly passionate – something I can relate to!

As I think I have said before I? classify myself as ‘mid-green’ and certainly wouldn’t claim to be a knowledgeable environmentalist. Like a lot of other Australians, I suspect, I care about our world and what we pass on to the next generation, but I am probably gullible when it comes to ‘greenwashing’…….the point of the exercise for those who practise this?

A PWF reader has very tactfully put this to me in relation to my ‘advertisement’ for BHPBilliton’s WA PALS Award, an idea that appealed to me as creative and in keeping with a policy of Corporate Social Responsibility.

HOWEVER, if you look at the program in the context of ‘greenwashing’ – it could be a cynical exercise -?there are probably several ways of interpreting it.

I suppose a part of me wants to believe that large organisations really DO care about sustainable development – even if it is only because it has?an impact on their returns to shareholders.

I was directed to www.mpi.org.au/ the Mineral Policy Institute (MPI), an Australian-based non-government organisation specialising in advocacy, campaigning and research to prevent environmentally and socially destructive mining, minerals and energy projects in Australia, Asia and the Pacific. This is also a very interesting site.

I have invited a?reply on the PWF Talks page and I would really like to hear from others who have an opinion. DO take a minute to say what you think – even if it’s only a line or two?