CHALLENGE TO GREENWASHING IN THE NAME OF SUSTAINABILITY

According to PAMSA, the Paper Manufacturing Association of South Africa, economic pressures remain the driver for most ‘greenwashing’. This refers to presenting products, policies and practices as being environmentally friendly when they may not be, misleading consumers.

Many companies are moving their customers from paper-based to digital platforms in a bid to reduce costs, but justifying it as being greener – ‘Go Green, Go Paperless’, and claiming that this saves trees. These types of statements about saving trees are unsubstantiated and misleading in several ways.

Firstly, such assertions give the impression that electronic communication is more environmentally friendly than paper-based communication. Secondly, the environmental footprint of the ICT sector encompasses energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions, which increases volumes of electronic waste. Thirdly, greenwashing perpetuates myths that forestry and paper are not environmentally sound. On the contrary, PAMSA states that wood from certified plantations is a renewable resource: sustainably managed forests or plantations are grown, harvested and replanted in rotation. This helps to mitigate climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide and storing carbon in the trees while they are growing, in the wood once harvested and even when the wood is made into products such as paper or furniture.

Companies are not saving trees by using less paper or going digital. Trees are ‘farmed’ for the products they produce, and a healthy market for paper and wood encourages the planting of more trees.

PAMSA estimates that unsubstantiated claims can also threaten a sector that employs about 150 000 people in South Africa. Research conducted by Two Sides and Censuswide in Europe found that greenwashing threatens the loss of 337 million Euros annually to the mailing and postal sectors.

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