Ever seen an advert that claims its product is ‘eco-friendly’ or that a business is being ‘kind to the earth,’ without actually backing up those claims? Chances are, you’ve been greenwashed.
Defined as ‘misleading the public to believe that a company or other entity is doing more to protect the environment than it is,’ greenwashing has been on the rise since the 2015 Paris Agreement, which placed companies’ environmental credentials under close scrutiny. Now that social media has intensified this scrutiny, brands are hellbent on appearing eco-friendly —even when they’re not.
Revealingly, forty per cent of green claims made online could be misleading. But without an agreed definition of what truly makes a company ‘sustainable,’ greenwashing tactics will continue to expose the Wild West of corporate advertising.
Omissions and Hoodwinking
It happens all too often: businesses tout their supposed green credentials whilst conveniently omitting the part they’re playing in the destruction of the planet. Just last year, Lloyds Banking Group found itself in hot water for a misleading LinkedIn advert, giving a false impression of positive climate action. The post, which was banned in December 2024, stated that Lloyds aims to power its buildings entirely with renewable energy. Sounds great, right? Perhaps, until you realise that in 2023, Lloyds increased its fossil fuel financing by 178 million.
By drawing consumers’ attention to the future sustainability of its operations, Lloyds clearly aimed to mask the fact that its investments have been anything but kind to the planet. In 2022, Lloyds-financed emissions amounted to 32.8m tonnes of CO2, whilst HSBC, another bank found guilty of greenwashing, had invested £6.4bn in new oil and gas ventures the year before. Hardly the eco-warrior material they tried to make themselves out to be.
Thankfully, their omissions were exposed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which is quite ironic when you consider that HSBC were running workshops on how to tackle greenwashing at the time. Maybe they should have taken a long, hard look at themselves first. Big banks are some of the largest financiers of fossil fuel projects globally, yet they routinely greenwash and hoodwink their customers into thinking otherwise.
Spinning a Narrative
Greenwashers employ other insidious tactics too, such as distorting facts to spin a narrative in their favour. Nowhere is this behaviour more apparent than in the lab-grown diamond industry. Demand for these gems, driven by cash-strapped, environmentally-conscious young people, is set to reach 19 million carats by 2030. Already, over half of all couples opt for a lab-grown diamond engagement ring.
There are several reasons why lab-grown diamonds are becoming more popular than their mined counterparts. Naturally occurring diamonds are formed under intense heat and pressure, at depths of about 200km, within the Earth’s mantle. Volcanic eruptions help bring this material closer to the surface, where it can be mined. But what if all this faff could be eliminated?
Recent innovations have meant companies can place a cutting of a carbon seed in a laboratory, subject it to the same conditions as Mother Nature and let it develop into a diamond. Suddenly, a process which would naturally take billions of years now only lasts a number of weeks, creating a near limitless supply of rough without the negative consequences associated with mining. At least that’s what diamond growers want you to think.
Several years ago, one of the largest jewellery trade shows in the world, JCK, sought to investigate if lab-grown diamonds were truly the ‘sustainable’ alternative they are said to be. According to one source, mined diamonds consume somewhere between 96 and 150 kWh per carat, whilst our environmentally conscious diamond growers can use between 28 and 215 kWh to produce one carat of rough. If we take the upper energy limit, that’s equivalent to the amount of energy that an average UK household consumes in a month. The production source also matters when it comes to weighing the environmental impact. The vast majority of lab-grown diamonds are produced in India and China, countries that are notoriously reliant on fossil fuels. Once these factors are taken into view, the eco-friendliness of lab-grown diamonds becomes more questionable.
The verdict by JCK is that the lab-grown diamond industry’s green claims are ‘difficult to substantiate.’ Despite the controversy, lab-grown material continues to be marketed as beneficial for the environment. A brief scroll through the internet brings up numerous retailers boasting of their ‘ethical,’ ‘sustainable,’ ‘carbon-negative,’ or ‘eco-friendly’ lab-grown diamond jewellery, with no further explanation to validate these claims. Perhaps that’s the point. The industry doesn’t want you to ask too many questions. All it needs to do is label something as eco-friendly and dazzle you with its stock to soothe your conscience.
COP30 would be the perfect opportunity to expose the practice of greenwashing by setting strict guidelines on how to tackle false advertising. This is arguably one problem that can be solved with relatively little effort and almost instant results.
No Place to Hide
As of 2025, 78 per cent of UK consumers consider sustainability an important factor when shopping. This puts things into perspective. Greenwashing is both unethical and environmentally problematic when firms take advantage of conscious shoppers to raise their sales.
Fortunately, greenwashers are getting their comeuppance. Back in 2022, the number of adverts banned for making false environmental claims in the UK tripled, proving that the ASA has never let corporations, no matter how powerful they are, off the hook. Fast forward to 2025, and action has been taken against a range of different sectors, from fashion to energy, beverages to cruise lines. For instance, Shein alone has been subjected to fines of €40m (£35m) from regulators in France and Italy this summer.
Let’s not sugarcoat it. Greenwashing is unethical, unlawful and undermines consumers’ trust. And we’re not letting the guilty parties get away with it. Journalists, campaigners and savvy social media users are calling out corporations’ misleading statements, while advertising watchdogs are doling out hefty punishments. Companies ought to think twice before lying to the public. After all, there’s nowhere to hide anymore.
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