As sustainability goes mainstream, consumers smell greenwashing

People are rightly sceptical of claims to sustainability when a topic is popular.

In the physical world, every action has an equal and opposite reaction. While marketing is a construction loosely based on the social rather than natural sciences, something similar is true. As brands mention the word ‘sustainability’ more, the public mentions ‘greenwashing’ more. 

This is according to data from Facebook’s – sorry! Meta’s – social monitoring tool, presented during a session at the Ad Net Zero summit in November. 

“There’s a significant amount of scepticism,” noted Meta’s connection planning director Pete Buckley. He cited data from the Chartered Institute of Marketing, that registers difficult figures: 

  • 63% of UK adults...

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