Greenwashing isn’t always malicious manipulation. Sometimes, it’s just marketing with a sustainability hangover.
The truth? Most greenwashing happens because people don’t know better. And that’s good news.
Because it means we can learn.
You’re not alone if you feel that subtle cringe when reading a sustainability claim you wrote last week. And you’re not doomed.
At Content for Good & Co, greenwashing is a solvable symptom of a skills gap and not necessarily a permanent stain. When we close that skill gap, we empower ourselves (and our community) to do good and talk about sustainability without risking reputations.
In this article, we’ll share the best resources out there to help you spot, stop, and prevent greenwashing in your day-to-day work. After all, doing good is only part of the story. Communicating it well and creating positive change is where the real impact lies.
Dig into this article to learn:
- How to recognize the sneaky signs of greenwashing before hitting publish
- Where to upskill (without enrolling in a new degree)
- What simple changes can make your next campaign genuinely green, not just green-ish
Knowledge is the most sustainable material, so let’s start with the basics.
What greenwashing is (and what it is not)
Greenwashing is a breach of trust. When 88% of consumers want brands to help them live more sustainably, green claims sell — but only if consumers can trust your brand.
At its core, greenwashing misguides people and influences their decision-making by presenting false or misleading claims about a company’s sustainable products, initiatives, or services. It creates the illusion of positive environmental impact, while the reality often tells a different story.
Sometimes, greenwashing is deliberate: a calculated PR move to cover up harmful practices. Other times, it’s unintentional, rooted in confusion, lack of education, or an overzealous copywriter trying to insert “eco-friendly” in the title for SEO purposes. Either way, the result is the same: consumers are misled.
That’s a branding issue, sure. But it’s also a compliance risk.
So, what exactly does a greenwashing campaign look like?
It’s when the act of greenwashing makes it out into the world: a sustainability-themed ad, a product label with “100% natural” slapped on it, or a press release about carbon offsets with no details to back it up. It’s the billboard, the blog post, the packaging: where greenwashing goes from internal skill gap to public deception.
But ignorance is no longer an excuse.
Regulatory frameworks are catching up. Consumers are calling brands to be accountable for their claims, holding them to higher standards every day. If you’re working in marketing or communication, making sure greenwashing doesn’t happen is now part of your job description.
In this YouTube video, Megan introduces greenwashing and breaks it down.
How do you prevent greenwashing?
Here’s the good news: greenwashing is preventable.
Avoiding greenwashing is often just a matter of knowing what to look out for and making a few intentional shifts in your communication.
1. Educate yourself on the latest greenwashing policies
Greenwashing is now a moral misstep as well as a legal one. The EU’s upcoming Green Claims Directive is a game-changer. It will require companies to back up any environmental claims with clear, scientific evidence. Generic statements like “eco-friendly” or “climate neutral” will need real data and third-party verification.
And it’s not just Europe. The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority released the Green Claims Code, guiding marketers on how to avoid misleading customers. Similar crackdowns are underway globally, from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s Green Guides to new sustainability labeling rules in Australia and Canada.
If you’re asking yourself, how do you stop greenwashing from showing up in your next campaign? Know that step one is to stay informed. The rules are changing, and your compliance needs to evolve with them.
2. Avoid vague phrases you can’t back up
Consumers are paying attention, and they’re skeptical. A 2022 survey found that more than 75% of consumers say they don’t know which brands to trust regarding sustainability. Why? Because vague language is everywhere.
Words like “green,” “clean,” “eco-conscious,” or “all-natural” may sound good, but without clear definitions or evidence, they’re just noise. If you can’t explain exactly what makes a product “sustainable” or “low-impact”, if you don’t have proof, the lesson is simple: don’t say it.
Use language your audience can verify. If you’re genuinely using recycled materials, tell us the percentage. If your product is compostable, explain the conditions. Specificity builds trust. Vagueness breaks it.
3. Be mindful of your imagery
A green leaf doesn’t make your product green. Visuals are powerful; unfortunately, they’re often where greenwashing sneaks in.
Think: oil companies showing wind turbines, fast fashion brands wrapping plastic in pictures of forests, or a splash of green paint as a stand-in for an environmental mission. A 2023 report by Planet Tracker found that visual greenwashing is one of the most common forms used in investor and consumer communications.
Alignment matters, in words as well as in design. Make sure your imagery reflects your actual impact. If you’re still early in your sustainability journey, say so. That honesty will earn more credibility than a stock photo of a seedling ever could.
4. When in doubt, ask your network
You don’t have to figure this all out alone. If you’re unsure whether a message could be seen as misleading, ask a trusted peer, a sustainability advisor, or even your sustainable marketing community. A second pair of eyes can spot things you might miss, especially deep in campaign mode.
Plus, inviting feedback is part of building a culture of transparency. That’s how you stop greenwashing from becoming the default. You create an environment where honest conversations and continued learning are encouraged.
Knowing how to avoid greenwashing comes down to being informed, intentional, and willing to ask questions. Marketing is powerful, so let’s use it for good.
If you don’t know where to start, Content For Good & Co’s “Greenwashing 101” workshops were designed for marketers and communicators at all levels and industries to learn more about what greenwashing is and how not to greenwash. We will look at important regulations and frameworks from regional and multinational areas and explore examples from various industries. You will gain a deeper perspective on the shady workings of greenwashing and its complexity, along with how to spot it and prevent it in your green communication.
Schedule a call to discuss a workshop.
Stop greenwashing by skilling up
Not all of us have the luxury of an in-house legal team scrutinising every word before launch. But the absence of a lawyer doesn’t mean the presence of greenwashing has to be inevitable.
There’s never been a better time or more accessible tools to skill up and stop greenwashing before it starts. Solo freelancers, lean startup marketing teams, or enterprises with external agencies can build their greenwashing immunity in three steps:
1. Developing internal tools
Companies don’t need to start from scratch to prevent greenwashing; they need better internal questions. Several organisations have introduced greenwashing checklists and guidelines to help their marketing teams stay compliant, transparent, and consumer-trusted.
One example: Clean Creatives offers resources for agencies navigating sustainability messaging, while ADEME (France’s ecological transition agency) released a comprehensive guide in 2022 to help French businesses avoid misleading environmental claims.
Whether you build or borrow these internal frameworks, they serve as a reality check before campaigns go live. They’re practical, repeatable, and scalable. And most importantly, they help prevent.
2. Trying an emerging tool
We’re living in the age of AI, and it turns out it’s not just for writing emails faster: it’s also helping spot misleading claims before they leave the building.
Enter: Unitmode, created by Seán Boyle. This tool is designed to evaluate sustainability-related language and flag risks of greenwashing before it reaches your audience. By analysing messaging and assessing the level of substantiation, Unitmode gives marketers a way to test their content before regulators (or social media vigilantes) do.
While tools like this aren’t foolproof, they represent a decisive shift toward proactive accountability.
3. Upskilling with trusted resources
No tool can replace you—your knowledge, judgment, and commitment to doing the work right. A well-informed communicator is the best defence against accidental greenwashing.
Here are some of the top greenwashing education resources available right now:
- Green Marketing Challenge – UNSSC: A free course designed to equip professionals with the skills to align marketing with the Sustainable Development Goals.
- Greenwash Watch – Creatives for Climate: A course built for creatives and communicators ready to dive deep into the roots (and remedies) of greenwashing.
- Greenwashing 101 – Can Marketing Save the Planet?: A knowledge hub with definitions, examples, and a podcast series exploring the line between ethical marketing and misinformation.
- Anti-Greenwashing Toolkit – Carma: Practical guidance from sustainability communications experts.
- Green Claims Training – Planted: A German-language course focused on CSR and regulatory compliance in green marketing.
- Anti Greenwash Charter Awareness Training: A course for teams looking beyond buzzwords and building credibility in climate communication.
- DUH (Deutsche Umwelthilfe): One of Germany’s leading environmental watchdogs, DUH regularly investigates and challenges green claims across industries.
- The New Rules of Green Marketing: Strategies, Tools, and Inspiration for Sustainable Branding, by Jacquelyn Ottman: A book on how brands can authentically integrate sustainability into their core strategy, offering clear guidance on avoiding greenwashing by stressing transparency, consumer trust, and real environmental and social impact.
Whether you build a checklist, use an AI tool, or take a full course, you have more control than you think. Preventing greenwashing is about intention, transparency, and continuous learning.
Because let’s face it: your best campaign is the one that holds up to scrutiny and inspires real change, and not necessarily the one that wins you awards.
*wink*
The fix for greenwashing? Skilling up
Greenwashing might be everywhere, but it mustn’t be in your work.
If you’re wondering how to avoid greenwashing and protect your brand from regulatory or legal headaches, the answer is simple: education is your best defense. Upskilling is risk mitigation, brand building, and impact alignment.
At Content For Good & Co., we’re here to help you do that. Whether you need a crash course, a company-wide training, or a bespoke greenwashing workshop, we’ve got you. Get in touch to learn more about our ‘How Not to Greenwash’ workshops for marketing and communications teams.
