What's Hot: Sustainability

If you haven’t heard about sustainability yet you must have been living under a rock or been Castaway on an island a la Tom Hanks. Sustainability, eco-friendly, reducing plastic, slow fashion are all buzz terms we can’t get away from. Whether it is Blue Planet on our Sunday screens, extinction rebellion dominating the news or the announcement that cotton buds will soon be banned. Either way this is a matter we can’t ignore and shouldn’t ignore, but are some brands using this hot topic to their advantage?

Many brands are genuinely looking at what they can do internally to change and putting sustainability at the heart of the business, leading the way for others in their industries. Bath bomb enthusiasts Lush Cosmetics are a good example within the beauty sector, who have launched a packaging-free naked range which also boast using less water in their production. However, there are just as many brands who are using sustainability to divert attention away from less eco-friendly practices.

This strategy has become known as ‘Green washing’. Advertising the good to hide the bad, making it very difficult for consumers to make decisions on which brands are honourably green. There are also lots of industries who promote green actions but don’t actually follow through with them. Most of you will have seen cards in hotels that tell you about the amount of water used to wash towels and bed linen, encouraging re-use of towels by hanging them up. Although in my experience this is often ignored and these towels will still be taken and replaced with fresh ones the same day. Fashion is another good instance of green washing. Where initiatives are in place to recycle bags and packaging for a discount off more fast fashion, encouraging us to purchase more and so driving this cycle rather than the alternative of investing capsule wardrobes.

Green washing is making it difficult for us to see the sustainable wood for the trees. Some companies are trying to make things clearer by creating their own green criteria. A few of the big online travel aggregators are guiding us to more eco-hotels by qualifying them against certain standards like farm-to-table menus, energy saving light bulbs and refillable bathroom products.

A truly sustainable future is still a long way off for many brands, with lots of hurdles in the way. Until then it is up to individual consumers to decide which brands are doing enough and which are just green washing.

‘Green washing’ is just one of the sustainable issues we uncovered. Save yourself all the research and reading, because we’ve done it for you! Click here to find out how you can be truly green.

If you haven’t heard about sustainability yet you must have been living under a rock or been Castaway on an island a la Tom Hanks. Sustainability, eco-friendly, reducing plastic, slow fashion are all buzz terms we can’t get away from. Whether it is Blue Planet on our Sunday screens, extinction rebellion dominating the news or the announcement that cotton buds will soon be banned. Either way this is a matter we can’t ignore and shouldn’t ignore, but are some brands using this hot topic to their advantage?

Many brands are genuinely looking at what they can do internally to change and putting sustainability at the heart of the business, leading the way for others in their industries. Bath bomb enthusiasts Lush Cosmetics are a good example within the beauty sector, who have launched a packaging-free naked range which also boast using less water in their production. However, there are just as many brands who are using sustainability to divert attention away from less eco-friendly practices.

This strategy has become known as ‘Green washing’. Advertising the good to hide the bad, making it very difficult for consumers to make decisions on which brands are honourably green. There are also lots of industries who promote green actions but don’t actually follow through with them. Most of you will have seen cards in hotels that tell you about the amount of water used to wash towels and bed linen, encouraging re-use of towels by hanging them up. Although in my experience this is often ignored and these towels will still be taken and replaced with fresh ones the same day. Fashion is another good instance of green washing. Where initiatives are in place to recycle bags and packaging for a discount off more fast fashion, encouraging us to purchase more and so driving this cycle rather than the alternative of investing capsule wardrobes.

Green washing is making it difficult for us to see the sustainable wood for the trees. Some companies are trying to make things clearer by creating their own green criteria. A few of the big online travel aggregators are guiding us to more eco-hotels by qualifying them against certain standards like farm-to-table menus, energy saving light bulbs and refillable bathroom products.

A truly sustainable future is still a long way off for many brands, with lots of hurdles in the way. Until then it is up to individual consumers to decide which brands are doing enough and which are just green washing.

‘Green washing’ is just one of the sustainable issues we uncovered. Save yourself all the research and reading, because we’ve done it for you! Click here to find out how you can be truly green.