Climate change is one of the major concerns in the contemporary world. Organisations like the UN made various rules for companies around the world to deal with climate change. Those rules are to use more environmentally friendly and sustainable methods to do business; companies should promote and respect indigenous people around the world.
Greenwashing refers to a marketing strategy where companies falsely show and prove themselves as environmentally friendly to attract more eco-conscious consumers. It also includes how big mining companies justify their actions against indigenous people in the name of saving the environment. The term was first used by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 , who criticised the hotel industry’s false “save the towel” campaigns. These campaigns encouraged guests to reuse towels under the name of environmental conservation, while other side hotels continued to practice unsustainable practices elsewhere.
History of greenwashing
Scholars argued that the roots of greenwashing can be traced back to the 1960s and 1970s, when environmental awareness started because of growing concerns about pollution, global warming, and corporate responsibility. Companies tried to maintain their reputations by showing themselves more environmentally responsible, even if their actual practices are totally different from what they are preaching. One can consider an example of early greenwashing to be Chevron’s 1980s “People Do” campaign, which portrayed the company as environmentally responsible while it continued other unsustainable activities.
Like other corporate strategies, greenwashing has also evolved with changing consumer awareness and behaviour and stricter environmental controls. In the 2000s, as climate change became one of the major concerns across the globe, corporations started rapidly investing in their green marketing strategies, sometimes using terms like “eco-friendly” or “sustainable” without any solid proof to prove the sustainability of their products. The rise of corporate social responsibility (CSR) further increased the propaganda of greenwashing, allowing big businesses and corporations to construct fake ideas of sustainability without making meaningful changes and impact.
Today, greenwashing exists in various forms, including fake advertisements, fake product labels, exaggerated claims, and strategic rebranding. Regulatory bodies and media organisations also are working with the corporations and do not have any accountability through stricter guidelines and legal actions.
Greenwashing and its impact on tribal communities
Greenwashing, the practice of falsely portraying environmental responsibility, has severe consequences for tribal and marginalised communities worldwide. Under the discourses of conservation, governments and corporations often come up with policies that lead to the displacement of tribal communities.
One of the major concerns for tribal communities from the forest is the creation of the various protected areas like national parks and sanctuaries. These ideas are promoted and funded by global conservation organisations and governmental agencies, and they show the necessity of these steps to combat climate change and biodiversity loss. However, they ignore the major fact that indigenous peoples have always coexisted with animals and ecosystems with sustainable methods for centuries. The displacement of tribal communities not only destroys their cultural heritage and knowledge system but also leaves them interdependent on other organisations. The UN’s Biosphere divided is the such example, where creation of various protected areas led to the displacement of tribal communities.
Corporate capitalist ideas promote projects like carbon offset schemes and biofuel plantations. While most of these projects claim to promote and practice environmental sustainability, they often lead to snatching lands from tribal communities and deforestation. For example, industries working in palm oil production or hydroelectric dams have forcibly snatched indigenous lands under the promises of decreasing carbon emissions and environmental conservation.
Instead of maintaining a more sustainable environment, such projects prioritise profit over the rights and dignity of tribal communities. Even the nationalist propaganda also encouraged tribals to give away their land for betterment of the country.
Israel’s greenwashing and justification for colonialism
Across the world, grassroots movements are mobilising for indigenous rights to land and resources, sustainability, and resistance against climate colonialism and exploitative environmental policies. Palestine is also a major part of these mobilisations, as apartheid Israel continues its decades-long campaign of ethnic cleansing and genocide against Indigenous Palestinians—displacing them from their homes, villages, and agricultural lands.
Israeli companies play a crucial role in this greenwashing effort. Corporations like Mekorot and Netafim steal Palestinian water resources, redirecting these sources towards settlements and portraying these ideas as sustainable. In reality, these projects promote extreme privatisation under neoliberalism agendas targeting local communities. Other Israeli companies, such as Haifa Chemicals and Adama, also contributed chemicals that are harmful for Palestinians and environmental sustainability as well.
Colonial organisations like the Jewish National Fund (JNF) also participate in this greenwashing propaganda by planting forests and building ‘parks‘ atop ethnically cleansed Palestinian villages and territories, attempting to exclude their history under the saviour of the environment. Meanwhile, many MNCs, like Siemens and Chevron, profit from Israel’s fossil fuel industry, which is used for the genocide of Palestinians.
Many corporations that claim to support climate actions and promote sustainability—such as HD Hyundai, PUMA, AXA, and Barclays—are major collaborators in Israeli apartheid and genocide of Palestinians peoples, all while using sustainability and climate change discourses to hide their direct involvement. Climate summits like COP28 promote this greenwashing propagandas by providing a stage for these corporations while marginalizing subaltern and indigenous voices fighting for genuine climate and social justice.
Israel’s greenwashing not only serves to justify systemic oppression of Palestinians but also reinforces inequalities among the global south and north. where powerful nations use environmental narratives and justifications to justify colonialism, land stealing from tribal communities, and resource exploitation from the global south.
“Eco-friendly” and women
Greenwashing also has a severe impact on women from marginalised communities. Many so-called “eco-friendly” brands rely on the labour of women in precarious conditions, such as in organic cotton farming or ethical fashion. These women most of the time face low wages, poor working conditions, and exposure to poisonous chemicals under the practicing so-called sustainability. One example of this could be the garment industry; despite marketing themselves as sustainable, these brands continue to exploit the labour of women workers.
Greenwashing campaigns by corporations often put the responsibility of sustainability on women—forcing them to adopt and promote eco-friendly products while ignoring systemic pollution done by corporations. One example of this pattern could be that women are encouraged and promoted to use biodegradable sanitary products while other side industries continue large-scale pollution and production of unsustainable goods.
Addressing greenwashing should require inclusion of indigenous communities, encourage community-led conservation, and challenge corporate environmental hypocrisy. Genuine sustainability ideas must be rooted in justice and inclusivity of indigenous people, women, and historically marginalised peoples.
About the author(s)
Faga Jaypal is a final year history student at Sri Venkateswara College, University of Delhi, with a keen interest in intellectual history, gender and sexuality studies, social justice, and cultural studies. Passionate about literature, books, and museums, he combines his love for storytelling with academic research. Aspiring to become a teacher like Mr. Keating, he seeks to explore history through diverse narratives.
