Greenwash: the biggest & newest risk to tackling climate change

Greenwash is a massive obstacle in helping our clients achieve their sustainability goals.

Ten years ago most sustainability teams were filled with people who knew how to achieve energy efficiency. Now they’re filled with people who know how to report on energy efficiency. They’ve become skilled at telling a story rather than acting on the story.” Rowan Packer, Head of Sustainability and Social Value.

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Tangible actions to reduce carbon emissions

At MAPP we recognise the value storytelling has had on promoting the green agenda. However, instead of waxing lyrical about long-term sustainability strategies, our actions today, tomorrow and in the future should actually show reduced carbon emissions. Reporting will tell us the real story.

As an industry let’s get real and identify targets and measure results. If there aren’t any results and all that’s communicated are targets, then that’s greenwash. We set ourselves and our clients authentic targets and only when we’re making progress against those targets do we communicate them externally. The best way for us to beat greenwash is to be transparent and honest.

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Separating fact from fiction

The built environment enables greenwash simply because the sustainability agenda cuts across the entire life cycle of a building: how materials are sourced; the energy and water consumed during construction; occupancy across a building’s lifetime; followed by its eventual destruction and disposal. It’s easy to report on one aspect and get recognition for progress made while underperforming against a host of other criteria.

We think reporting on raw fuel to create a fundamental hard database is a great starting point. How much electricity do you actually consume? If you’ve got recycling in your organisation, record the kilos of recycled waste – don’t just convert it into percentages. Then you can start playing with the raw data and carbon emissions and set benchmarks.

The other step we can all take is to prove our claims. For example, next to all your published aims and commitments, also have published case studies focussed directly on your commitments.

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A journey, not a destination

Our concern is that increasingly the built environment’s sustainability journey is just paved with good intentions.

“I think one of the biggest changes we can make is that the industry needs to start challenging each other’s claims. I think everyone’s been too diplomatic and I think we need to do a little bit more pulling people out and being honest and authentic. In the last 10 years, almost every company has come out with a net-zero carbon commitment, but no one’s challenging each other on it, which is extraordinary, right? And when you compare commitments, they’re not even comparable. So it’s all done with great intention, but we’re not challenging each other and I think that’s one step we can take” says Rowan Packer.

We definitely favour this approach over increased government regulation.

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We need people who have made mistakes

“I think this needs to be policed by people who have learned the lessons on what it takes to reduce a tonne of carbon. By people who are vastly experienced, people who’ve made all the mistakes and learnt all the lessons” says Rowan.