By Dan Ratner, founder and managing director of uberbrand
From non-recyclable plastic-free straws to gas companies posting climate change polls on Twitter, greenwashing remains a global problem that brands are struggling to tackle.
An ACCC analysis of 247 Australian businesses found 57% had promoted concerning claims about environmental credentials, with statements ranging from overstating climate action to developing their own certification schemes.
Greenwashing (and its close cousin, woke-washing) are fundamentally a problem born of ignorance. It’s the path of least resistance, not just in fashion but in a wide range of industries – investment giants and soft drinks brands alike.
Ignorance continues to spread, causing brands to wrongly believe that their consumers don’t care – that they’re willing to have the wool pulled over their eyes, and that they will simply believe what they’re being told. As we’ve seen time and time again, this is no longer the case.
Diversity is a fundamental answer to resolving ignorance – and by extension, greenwashing – within advertising and the media. Facilitating access for people into the creative industries and branding who have previously faced barriers (creatives of colour and working mothers to name just a couple of categories) will surface unexplored or ignored issues and will ensure a wider range of perspectives are shared.
It’s easy to fall into the trap of believing that diversity and climate are two distinct issues. In fact, climate issues and wider equality are intrinsically linked, as Julian Agyeman perfectly explains in this piece for The Guardian, where he shares his mantra: “True environmental wellbeing will only exist when there is human wellbeing.”
Only by hiring people with lived or close experience of climate, racial, and other forms of injustice can creative agencies, brands, and the media truly start to address greenwashing and woke-washing head-on.
By eradicating ignorance through diversity, we can eradicate the ignorant thinking that gives rise to greenwashing and woke-washing. This, in turn, has a huge effect on the work brands create and the stories they tell.
Diversity brings consciousness to the kind of casual racism that often hides in plain sight. A diverse team gives everyone a second thought to those casual, flippant comments that can so easily fly under the radar in ‘stale, pale and male’ workplaces – and bleed into the work itself.
As creatives, how can we create our best work when we’re not regularly questioning and checking ourselves? Once those biases are removed, we become conscious. And once we’re conscious, we take action.
This isn’t about tokenism. It’s about actually creating environments where diverse groups of people are appropriately represented – only then can diversity have the desired effect.
By diverse, I mean all of it, and as much of it as possible: diverse cultural backgrounds, racial diversity, socio-economic backgrounds, gender diversity, LGBTQI representation, religion, age, and disability.
Otherwise, we’re just proliferating our bias – both internally, and within the work we make.
–
Dan Ratner is the founder and managing director of uberbrand. Ratner founded the Australian branding agency to provide a clear line of sight between brand strategy and its translation into market. He has 25 years of experience working with leadership teams, founders and boards to bring their vision into real, actionable strategy and informed creative.
Ratner has also worked across Australian and international brands across finance, health, government, education, FMCG and not-for-profits. He currently sits on the board of Clean Up Australia, playing a key role in enabling the organisation to continue to be both pivotal and iconic in Australia.