Strategies and Approaches for Sustainability and Greenwashing in Businesses

Strategies and Approaches of Organizations

The business organizations are the time required to focus towards identifying and evaluating key opportunities and threats emerging in the industry environment and accordingly strategic decisions are to be made to overcome such emerging challenges and the strategic and competitive position can further be ensured to be retained in the industry. Considering such it can be reflected that sustainability and climate change are among the key challenges or the issues being faced by the marketers in the present industry. As the interest of the industry stakeholders is shifting towards the organizations that are more aligned towards adopting key steps and approaches which can lead towards environment protection (Rosen & Kishawy, 2012). This discussion is focused towards evaluating the strategies or approaches that the organizations such as BP are adopting to improve their marketing strategies, also will identify the key issue or challenges that such organizations are facing with respect to the implementation of sustainability practices.  

An industry report states that in the present scenario majority of the organizations are focusing towards being sustainable and are defining their vision and the approaches that can lead them to be eco-friendly or greener. It can be defined that in order to be serious about the issue and to truly evaluate the organization’s goal or vision in respect to climate change, it should be evaluated that the business plan or strategic approach being defined by the brand is achievable and has a set target, not just an unrealistic goal. Also, there is a need to ensure that the company is able to define a set timeline through which the set strategic goals can be implemented across the market (BP, 2020).

Considering the above-defined approach, it can be reflected that one of the key issues in respect to the implementation of sustainable practices is the irresponsible attitude of the organizations towards the threat of climate change. As the marketers have identified and understood the need for involving sustainability strategies in their marketing plan to attract industry stakeholders and to retain competitiveness. Accordingly, the majority of the marketers of the leading brands are focusing towards the approach of greenwashing. Such reflects that the marketers are exaggerating the available green resources in order to make claims of being sustainable. The key reasons that are making such strategies successful are lack of proper evidence, no alternatives available as well as third-party approvals (Pavlovic, 2021).

BP a leading brand in the global oil and gas sector has also been criticised for its greenwashing approaches or strategies in the industry. The case reflects that BP was promoting its brand through a digital advertisement campaign which described BP burning of fuel for extraction of gasses as “cleaner-burning”. The environmentalist further made a claim that as BP is reflecting that is contributing towards eliminating the negative elements arising due to the burning of such fuels, but on the other hand, burning such fuels is leading towards depletion of natural resources as there is no alternative available. So just to retain the brand’s strategic image and to further ensure stakeholder attraction, BP is making greenwashing efforts towards sustainability (Chapman, 2019).

Challenges and Barriers in Implementing Sustainable Practices

Considering the case of BP in the present industry scenario, it can be reflected that there are certain key aspects or factors which are acting as a key challenge or barrier for the organizations such as BP to implement sustainability strategies. Focusing towards that of the BP strategic approaches it can be identified that the organization has pledged toward ensuring that they will work towards reducing methane intensity and will further improve the process transparency, but the challenge in the process is that BP only has its monitoring capability limited to its processing plants and only the plants which it owns directly. Therefore, over a period of time, BP will not be able to reflect upon the exact amount or level of methane it has reduced. Therefore, it can be stated that it is just a lip-service to the stakeholders rather than actively working towards eliminating the emission (Kortenhorst, et al., 2020).

The industry researchers have defined that there are several key factors that are contributing towards the increased challenges to the implementation of sustainable strategies and further leading towards greenwashing. Such can be identified as the increased pressure from the stakeholders to act responsibly and eco-friendly as well as the shifting customer preferences towards the social responsibilities of the organization. The researcher defines that in the present industry environment the organizations lack alternatives to the existing process or the approaches, but despite such, to retain their competitiveness they are being pressurised to reflect upon the sustainability which is ultimately leading towards the increased approaches of greenwashing (Freitas Netto, et al., 2020).

However, it can also be reflected that adopting greenwashing and putting sustainability in the strategy just as lip service may not result in ensuring success. Such has a major impact on the brand reputation and the organization’s market trust in the global and competitive market. Such can be supported through the case of Volkswagen, the brand to ensure attraction of stakeholder interest installed a defeat device within its vehicles which cheated the emission test and classified the vehicles provided by Volkswagen as sustainable and eco-friendly, but it was not. The scandal came to light in 2015 and at the time, Volkswagen had to recall its cars, pay compensation to the customers and investors, also it faced a major decline in its market share prices and customer trust over the brand. But the only reason for which Volkswagen has adopted such a strategy is that there was no specific alternative available for the issue, but to ensure customer retention it was required that the brand involves the element of sustainability in its marketing strategy (Forbes, 2016).

The Rise of Greenwashing in the Industry

Further, it can be reflected that in the present industry environment one of the key aspects that can be reflected in that the companies are not too serious or interested in implementing actual or factful approaches to sustainability or being green. As for smaller brands adopting the sustainability, approach leads towards increased operational cost which is not feasible for them, and for the bigger brands including BP, the industry lacks alternative sources, as well as evidence-based evaluation methods. Accordingly, the companies are not much aligned or interested towards implementing sustainability, but they are enjoying the benefits of ineffective evaluation tools and limited customer knowledge to adopt greenwashing in the industry (Laughland & Bansal, 2015).

Also, an approach is presented by Whelan and Kronthal-Sacco reflects that in the present marketplace the customers and the stakeholders are demanding the brands to be sustainable and to provide them with eco-friendly products and services. But the industry research reflects that it is the customer who is actually not willing to put up to the purchase and use of such sustainable products and services. The customers in the global market are much more oriented or focused towards the price being offered by the manufacturer or the brand and accordingly makes their purchase decision, which in most case is towards the unsustainable products and services. Therefore, such statistics or the customer attitude is also being a key barrier for the organizations to try on the product sustainability and is leading towards greenwashing and lip-servicing with respect to sustainability in the global marketplace (Whelan & Kronthal-Sacco, 2019).

But on the other hand, there is also an increased need for the organizations to be focused towards sustainability in long run, the international organizations including the United Nations as well as the Global Reporting Initiatives and other related organizations are developing standards and approaches which can be utilised in order to evaluate the sustainability practices and claims of the organizations. Therefore, those who are practising greenwashing as well as utilising false claims just to showcase their attitude or approach towards sustainability in the industry may face major issues and challenges in terms of their business operations as well as the justification of their claims at such an international level. Therefore, there is a need for the organizations in long term to be serious enough to support the sustainability practices to the extent that can help them in maintaining their organization’s operational efficiency as well as the business growth (Aon, 2020).

I believe that my attitude and belief have an impact not over a larger group of audience but over those whom I meet whether they are my friends, relatives or family members. Therefore, to ensure a better and quality lifestyle for future generations it is also my responsibility to ensure that I support the sustainability ideas and approaches in the market. My present lifestyle is not different from that of the regular customer or individual within the industry, but still, I try to make every possible contribution towards utilising the sustainability options being offered by the companies or the brands in the market. As understand the impact of plastic over the environment, I have tried to completely eliminate the use of single-use plastics either while going shopping or for any other related activity.

However, despite my effort towards the uses of sustainable products and services, my choice of action depends on two key factors the cost and quality. As there are certain products that are available in both the sustainable as well as non-sustainable form, the key deciding factor is the price and the use of the product. For example; in the market, straws are available in both plastic as well as the paper form. But then comparing its cost and usage, it can be reflected that the plastic straws are much cheaper and more useful and are recyclable as compared to the paper straws. Therefore, in such a case my preference is towards plastic straws which may are not sustainable, but are useful.

Accordingly, every aspect of my lifestyle is influenced by industry factors. Another example that I can present from my daily lifestyle is the use of fuel-based cars. As electric cars are a suitable alternative available in the market, there are certain key issues aligned with the use of the product, such as high charging time and limited charging network also they are expensive. Therefore, despite being expensive I am ready to adopt such cars as a part of my daily lifestyle, but due to the identified limitations of the charging network and charging time, I am a bit uncomfortable in utilising it. Based on my lifestyle experiences I can reflect that in the present marketplace, not only the brands but the customers are also not fully prepared to adapt towards sustainability. As at some point, my current lifestyle complies with the sustainability ideas but on the other hand, there are certain areas where I prefer comfort moreover sustainability.

Conclusion

The overall discussion has been focused on evaluating and understanding the emerging concept of sustainability and the present attitudes of the organizations as well as the customers in the present marketplace. The analysis has helped in understanding that in the present marketplace the organizations are not much focused towards adopting sustainability practices, they are adopting the approaches to greenwashing and lip-service, which reflects that they are just involving sustainability in their marketing plans and are not actually contributing towards environment protection. Such can be supported through the case of BP and Volkswagen where the brands have been criticised for such unethical and unsustainable practices within the industry. The analysis further defines that the increasing stakeholder pressure, as well as the market competitiveness, is resulting in the increased focus of organizations towards such greenwashing strategies. Also, through focusing on my personal experience I can state that the customers need more comfort and cost-effectiveness while deciding upon the selection or use of the product or service whether it is sustainable or not.

References

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Freitas Netto, S. V. d., Falcão Sobral, M. F. & Ribeiro, A. R. B., 2020. Concepts and forms of greenwashing: a systematic review. Environmental Sciences Europe, 32(19), pp. 1-10.

Kortenhorst, J., Matsuo, T. & Muralidharan, R., 2020. BP’s zero-carbon pledge: three major challenges. [Online] Available at: https://energypost.eu/bps-zero-carbon-pledge-three-major-challenges/ [Accessed 13 January 2022].

Pavlovic, D., 2021. What is Greenwashing and How to Tell Which Companies are Truly Environmentally Responsible. [Online] Available at: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/tech-takes/what-is-greenwashing-environmentally-responsible-companies [Accessed 13 January 2022].

Rosen, M. A. & Kishawy, H. A., 2012. Sustainable manufacturing and design: Concepts, practices and needs. Sustainability, 4(2), pp. 154-174.

Whelan, T. & Kronthal-Sacco, R., 2019. Research: Actually, Consumers Do Buy Sustainable Products. [Online] Available at: https://hbr.org/2019/06/research-actually-consumers-do-buy-sustainable-products [Accessed 13 January 2022].