12 Greenwashing Examples & Tips To Avoid It 2026

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I’ve been writing about sustainability for years. And the more I learn, the more I realize that one of the biggest barriers to actually living more sustainably isn’t laziness or lack of information, it’s being actively misled.

Greenwashing is everywhere. And I don’t mean that in an exaggerated way. I mean that I, someone who reads ingredient labels and researches brands for fun, have still been caught out by it.

That frustration is what made me want to write this post, and why I keep updating it.

Greenwashing isn’t just annoying. It’s harmful. When companies get rewarded for appearing sustainable rather than being sustainable, it slows down real progress. It diverts money and attention away from brands that are actually trying, and it lets the biggest polluters off the hook while we guilt ourselves over reusable coffee cups.

Let’s take a look at what greenwashing is, some examples that really piss me off, and then how to avoid it.

What is greenwashing?

Greenwashing is the deceptive practice of making false or exaggerated claims about the environmental benefits of a product, service, or company. 

It involves manipulating information, hiding negative outcomes, or selectively presenting positive aspects. This misleading tactic confuses consumers, giving them a false sense of contributing to environmental well-being. 

Greenwashing allows companies to divert attention from their true environmental impact, and oftentimes, they don’t genuinely care for the environment, but their focus is to sell more.

It is essential to be able to differentiate when a brand has real efforts for improvement and deceptive practices aimed solely at boosting sales. 

Examples of greenwashing

Once you know the tactics, you can’t unsee them:

• Vague buzzwords with no definition: “natural,” “eco,” “green,” “conscious,” “pure.”
• Highlighting one small positive while hiding a much larger negative
• Cherry-picked statistics with no context or independent verification
• Self-created certifications that sound official but mean nothing
• A small “sustainable” collection representing a tiny fraction of the overall production
• A “compostable, “recyclable,” or “biodegradable” claim for an item, without sharing any further proof or information about it

12 real-life examples of greenwashing

1. H&M’s “Conscious Collection”

For years, H&M sold a “Conscious Collection” with the clear implication: buy this, feel better about it.

In 2019, Norway’s Consumer Authority investigated and found that H&M’s sustainability claims were “not sufficient”, general statements with nothing behind them. The Netherlands followed & found the claims “unclear and insufficiently substantiated.” H&M eventually agreed to drop the “Conscious” label entirely and donate €500,000 to an environmental nonprofit to avoid sanctions.

A US class action went further, arguing the recycled polyester H&M used was essentially a one-way ticket to landfill; too degraded to be recycled again.

And even taking everything at face value, it would take H&M 12 years to recycle what they produce in 24 hours. Their in-store recycling bins aren’t a sustainability initiative. They’re a marketing tool, one that rewards you with a discount voucher for your next H&M purchase. (1, 2, 3, 4)

2. Zara’s “Join Life”

Same strategy, different name. Zara’s “Join Life” line uses organic cotton and recycled materials to signal environmental responsibility.

At one point, Zara claimed 50% of their collection met “Join Life” standards. But “Join Life standards” is a bar they set themselves. And even if you accept it, that still leaves hundreds of millions of garments produced unsustainably every year.

Greenpeace investigated and found false “certifications” named after Zara’s own programmes, no third-party verification, and misleading “circularity” claims involving polyester made from plastic bottles that can’t actually be recycled again.

As Fashion Revolution’s co-founder put it: rather than producing less, Zara is using sustainability language to shift more products and protect the guilty conscience of consumers. (1)

3. Primark’s self-made “Sustainable Cotton Programme”

In 2013, Primark launched the Primark Sustainable Cotton Programme (PSCP): their own initiative, applied to their own products, verified by themselves.

If they were serious about sustainable cotton, they’d use GOTS-certified organic cotton. They don’t. Instead, only around 5% of Primark’s garments use certified organic or recycled materials, and even within their “sustainable” lines, a cotton t-shirt may only need to be 50% PSCP cotton to qualify for the label.

They get to call it sustainable. You feel like you’re making a responsible choice. Primark keeps selling 600 million garments a year at rock-bottom prices.

So, they designed a system to look like accountability while avoiding it entirely. (1)

Other examples worth knowing

These span different industries, but the pattern is identical: find something small and technically true, build a misleading story around it.

• Volkswagen: fitted diesel cars with software to cheat emissions tests. Real-world emissions were far higher than advertised. Less “greenwashing,” more outright fraud. (1, 2, 3, 4)
• BP “Beyond Petroleum” campaign: spent the early 2000s rebranding as “Beyond Petroleum.” Then Deepwater Horizon happened, one of the worst environmental disasters in history. (1, 2, 3, 4)
• Fiji Water: claimed to be “carbon negative” by counting offsets not due to materialize until 2037, while bottling water in a diesel-powered factory. (1)
• ExxonMobil: ran ads about reducing emissions while directing the vast majority of actual investment into fossil fuel exploration. (1, 2, 3)
• Shell: “Don’t throw anything away – there is no away.” One of the world’s largest oil producers is positioning itself as environmentally conscious. A separate campaign claimed to grow flowers from CO2, later found to be false. (1, 2, 3)
• Nestlé’s “green” water bottles: marketed single-use plastic bottles as eco-friendly, using terms like “eco-shape” and “eco-slim.” The bottle was still a single-use plastic bottle. (1, 2)
• Coca-Cola’s PlantBottle: partially plant-based, still not widely recyclable, and a drop in the ocean relative to Coke’s actual plastic footprint. Plus, the overall impact and sustainability of the PlantBottle remain limited. (1, 2, 3)
• Walmart’s sustainability index: Walmart’s sustainability campaign did more for its image than for the environment; emissions were rising, and renewable energy progress was negligible. In 2017, they were also fined $940,000 for selling plastic products falsely labelled “biodegradable” and “compostable.” (1, 2) 
• LG: miscertified Energy Star efficiency ratings on its refrigerators, leading consumers to believe they were more energy-efficient than they actually were. This raised concerns about false environmental claims and product efficiency. (1, 2)

How to spot greenwashing

• Be suspicious of the vocabulary. “Eco,” “conscious,” “sustainable,” “natural,” “green”… none of these words have legal definitions in most countries. Anyone can put them on anything. When you see them, ask: sustainable compared to what? Certified by whom?
• Look for what they’re NOT saying. Real sustainability involves specifics: percentages, named certifications, supply chain data. Vagueness is almost always a red flag.
• Check who certified it. Recognized, independent certifications include GOTS, Certified B Corp, Fair Trade, USDA Organic, and Energy Star. If a brand is citing its own programme as evidence of its sustainability, chances are, they’re greenwashing you.
• Think about scale. One “eco collection” from a brand producing hundreds of millions of garments per year is not a sustainability story. It’s a marketing story.

Basically, if a brand uses vague buzzwords, unverifiable claims, self-made certifications, and can’t back their sustainability claims with specifics and proof, don’t trust it.

Final thoughts

What frustrates me most about greenwashing is that it targets people who care. You’re trying to make better choices. If you’ve been scammed by such companies, that’s not your fault, and it is worth being angry about.

The good news is that the more you pay attention, the easier it gets to spot. The vague buzzwords, the self-certified programmes, the tiny “sustainable” collection floating in a sea of overproduction… once you see the pattern, you can’t unsee it.

And noticing is the first step to not being fooled by it.

Have you been greenwashed? Any brands that particularly annoy you? Drop it in the comments, I’d love to hear.

Find my infographic on Greenwashing at the Almost Zero Waste Hub!