According to the Financial Times, greenwashing can be defined as “the overstating of the environmentally or socially conscious attributes of a firm’s offering and the understating of the negative attributes for the firm’s benefit.” Either explicit or implicit, it can take the forms of labels, partnerships or packaging and can be found through advertisements, websites and even on the products to boost products or services sell.
Through this definition, we can assert that SC Johnson was implicitly engaged in greenwashing with their selling strategy and marketing in their product packaging. Indeed, company’s “deceptively marketing” is reproaches by some consumers. It has encouraged them to purchase more expensive Greenlist products while their purchasing motivations were only focus on the fact that products
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SC Johnson’s mistake was not about their environmental and social commitments or Greenlist which is an internal ranking system in keeping with internal environmental product-labeling system which ensures products to incorporate green chemistry and meets regulatory compliance in accordance with Environmental Protection Agency among others. However, within a competitive sector where competitors use more and more third-party certifications which looks more trustful and transparent to the customers, SC Johnson’s decision not to change its internal process has conducted to consumers confusion since the packaging and marketing were closer to the ones with third party certifications with a blurred description “Greenlist is a rating system that promotes the use of environmentally responsible ingredients”. SC Johnson takes advantage of the third-party certifications thriving in the warehouse sector to