Greenwashing in the Fashion Industry: Definitions, Consequences, and the Role of Digital Technologies in Enabling Consumers to Spot Greenwashing

With consumers’ growing awareness of sustainability issues in the fashion industry, many fashion companies have started developing green products and green marketing strategies to deliver on consumers’ demands (Zhang et al. The influence of greenwashing perception on green purchasing intentions: The mediating role of green word-of-mouth and moderating role of green concern. Journal of Cleaner Production, 187, 740–750 [online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618308722. Accessed 26 June 2022; 2018). However, as many fashion companies lack transparency of their supply chains (Kent. In search of transparency: Fashion’s data problem [online]. Available at: https://www.businessoffashion.com/podcasts/sustainability/in-search-of-transparency-fashions-data-problem/. Accessed 29 June 2022; 2021), their green marketing efforts may be perceived as greenwashing as they lack the data needed to substantiate their claims (Zhang et al. The influence of greenwashing perception on green purchasing intentions: The mediating role of green word-of-mouth and moderating role of green concern. Journal of Cleaner Production, 187, 740–750 [online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618308722. Accessed 26 June 2022; 2018).

With the emergence of digital technologies that can aid in providing transparency on supply chains (Amed et al. The state of fashion 2022. [online] Available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/retail/our%20insights/state%20of%20fashion/2022/the-state-of-fashion-2022.pdf. Accessed 30 June 2022; 2021), rise in consumers’ demand for green products (Zhang et al. The influence of greenwashing perception on green purchasing intentions: The mediating role of green word-of-mouth and moderating role of green concern. Journal of Cleaner Production, 187, 740–750 [online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652618308722. Accessed 26 June 2022; 2018), and the recent regulations set by the Competition and Markets Authority on greenwashing (Gov.UK. Greenwashing: CMA puts businesses on notice. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/greenwashing-cma-puts-businesses-on-notice. Accessed 31 Oct 2022; 2021), it has become more important than ever for companies to avoid engaging with greenwashing.

Despite the fact that greenwashing has become prevalent in the fashion industry (Oliveira Duarte et al. From fashion to farm: Green marketing innovation strategies in the Brazilian organic cotton ecosystem. Journal of Cleaner Production, 360, 132196 [online]. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652622018029#bib48. Accessed 13 July 2022; 2022), literature on it has remained limited. In this chapter, a critical literature review of greenwashing is provided which includes definitions, reasons why it occurs, and its impact on consumers’ purchase behaviour. To fill this in the literature, this chapter draws on key literature provided in academic books and journals, as well as industry reports and articles accompanied by recent examples in the fashion industry.

Lastly, this chapter explores how digital technologies can be leveraged to enable consumers to spot greenwashing, and as a result, encourage companies to avoid engaging with it (Fernandes et al. When consumers learn to spot deception in advertising: testing a literacy intervention to combat greenwashing. International Journal of Advertising, 39(7), 1115–1149 [online]. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02650487.2020.1765656?needAccess=true. Accessed 10 June 2022; 2020).