Sustainability and Greenwashing

Hello and hello, and welcome to this week's episode of Sniffing Out The Bullshit. Well, it's been quite some time. I have certainly not recorded any podcasts in a while. Life has kind of got an in the way. I don't even know where to start. Um, what on earth have I been up to, and what excuses do I have not making any podcasts? Okay, well, I'd say, should I use the cost of living crisis? I mean, that's been screwing over everyone. Got no time. These are some really bullshit excuses, and I've sniffed that out, and I can smell the bullshit on myself. So I'm not going to say any of that. Basically, I prioritized other things. I feel like when people say I've got no time, it's bullshit. Everyone has the same amount of time. I just prioritize other things. And I feel like I made a few silly decisions, especially with hiring, taking on certain projects I should have done and found myself in a bit of a mess, and the podcast got shifted down the pile. But I am not going to let that happen anymore. So I am back, and I'm gonna be here every week. I've just announced that now, and I'm accountable to all of you, you four listeners or however many out there. So I'm gonna be doing every week until the end of the year, at least. And then we're gonna do a new strategy and review what's been happening for next year. But yes, so I have also been doing lots of talks recently. I feel like I've been doing gig after gig after gig, which is great, but also extremely tiring. If I could deal with a nap, you know? But I've been doing lots of stuff around sustainability. So for those of you who know me, I do a lot of work in digital sustainability. So my agency that I run, we design and build low carbon websites. So we're all about trying to lower the carbon output of a website. So all of my stuff revolves around digital sustainability. But naturally, I'm in circles of people who love sustainability in general. And so therefore I've been on panels, I've been doing talks at places like the Excel and the Gherkin. And, you know, there's been a lot of different things going on. And so I wanted to talk about sustainability and some of the talking points I've come up because it is such a buzzword right now.

And I mean, it's great that people are talking about sustainability, and it's amazing that climate change is getting a serious look in, and people are starting to take action. But at the same time, there's a lot of bullshit out there. There's a lot of people who are just trying to jump on this bandwagon and trying to look like they're doing some good in the world. And so they are now claiming to be a sustainable business or green business or whatever the term they want to use. And so they're claiming that they're doing all these sorts of things. And essentially, they're just greenwashing. So if you haven't heard of the term greenwashing, it's a term to describe people or businesses or organisations who are claiming to do things that they're not. They are claiming to produce their products in a sustainable and eco-friendly way. They're claiming to treat their workers ethically. They're claiming to source their goods properly. But really, all of that's not true. And so there's been a lot of claims. And there are no dysplations in place, but it's very, very difficult to go after them all and fight them and prove things too. But these businesses are desperately trying to come across a certain way, and they will get found out. But I think people need to call them out. But the problem is, I think that there are loads of great organizations out there. There are loads of people who are also doing lots of little things in order to try and do their best when it comes to sustainability. And now people are being called out for greenwashing, and it's quite scary. And also it's damaging for your reputation if you do get accused of greenwashing. So that lots of these organizations are instead keeping quiet, and they're not shouting out about what they do, because they're scared of being accused of greenwashing. So now we even have a term for that, and that's called green hushing, because you're making people keep quiet about the sustainability efforts because of the fear of being accused. And what this is then doing is stopping the awareness being spread around and stopping people talking about this absolutely essential topic. And there absolutely needs to be a balance. So the question is, how do we find the balance between greenwashing and green hushing? And I'd say first of all, just don't lie. So you're not going to get accused of greenwashing if you don't lie.

So cut the bullshit and you won't get accused of greenwashing. I'd say that anything you do, do back it up with evidence. Prove that you're doing what you're doing. Prove that if you're saying that you're sourcing your fabrics or your products ethically, and your whole supply chain has been looked at and has been made more sustainable, then document that. Show people what you're doing. It may not be perfect. You may not be the greenest company in the world, and you've still got lots of work to do, but if you genuinely want to make some effort to try and improve, and you're showing that you are, then people will respect that. Especially if you're a small business, because no one's expecting you to have the money and the processes and the resources and the time and everything to go into having the most sustainable and green products line or service business, whatever you're running. So as long as you're being true and you're actually making an effort, then you're not gonna get criticized for it. Well, you shouldn't. Someone's always gonna criticize you, but you can just ignore those people. So then what I would say to those who have been on the green-hushing side of things is speak up. Don't be afraid of talking about what you're doing, because even if it's something super small, you are making a big difference. Small changes add up to make a big impact. And what you don't realize is that you are still doing way more than many, many, many people. So even if you're just starting out and you don't want to start shouting out about it in case people think, oh, we've only done that, what's the big deal? I guarantee you, there's going to be a ton more people who have done way less than you, because that's how I felt. I never used to speak about it. There was no way I was going to record a podcast on sustainability several months ago. And you know, there was no way I thought I'd be asked to speak at all these different events, but that's because surprisingly, I am doing a lot more than most people, but I didn't realize that. I was definitely keeping quiet, because I thought, oh, no, no, no, I'm definitely not as good as X, Y, Z. And that's that bloody compara-noia that we're talking about. And this is the term that I love to use, because we are consistently comparing ourselves to the world, and it's driving up this paranoia about what we should be like, and creating imposter syndrome, and all these other buzzwords that have been thrown

around. And I just made up compara-noia, but I will do a podcast on it, because there's so much of it, and there's a lot of it going around. And I feel like we should address how to deal with them. But, so, first of all, greenhushing, I definitely felt greenhushed. And, you know, I have realized, actually, when I started having conversations with people, when they were like, oh, I had no idea that that was even possible. I had no idea that you could do that. I had no idea that you were doing so much. And that's amazing. I'm like, am I doing so much? I didn't realize I was doing a lot. And as I started to realize how little this topic has talked about and how little people are doing, I realized that maybe I am doing something. Maybe I am one of the forward thinking ones. And that's kind of crazy to think about it. And it shows how far we have to go as a nation. And it shows how much we have to keep talking about it. Otherwise, we won't be able to hit any of our targets. So, what can we do? What can businesses do to be more sustainable? Where do they start? Well, as I said, first of all, you start talking about it. You start talking about it with your team, with other colleagues in your industry, and just having frank, open and honest conversations. That conversation could even start with, I have no idea what I'm doing when it comes to sustainability. And that's fine, because you can tackle it together. You can ask someone who's happy to help, and I guarantee they will be happy to help. Everyone I've met who's passionate about sustainability will happily talk about it for ages. Just like I'm doing on this podcast. And I feel like if you just engage in conversation with any of them for 10 minutes, you'll be able to get so many ideas that you can implement immediately. The great thing about it is, like I said, if you do small, small, small changes, then that could actually lead to a big, big thing. And for example, before I talk about how businesses tackle sustainability, I'm going to talk about it individually, because I started off on this journey, I think, just at the start of COVID, as everyone kind of did something at the start of COVID, I feel like I started reading more about it. I ended up on a course. I kind of became obsessed with measuring my carbon footprint. And the WWF have got a great app for that, by the way, to start off with. Do check it out. It's quite fun. And also quite alarming when you start to realize what your carbon footprint is.

And it started to make me think about all the little things that I could do. So I just started doing very tiny things in my day to day. For example, I cut down on meat. I am still a meat eater. That does not mean I'm evil just because I am not vegan. I think that's what people don't realize. They go, oh, you know, she's hypocritical. She's talking about sustainability, but there she is with her steak and chips. And don't get me wrong, I do love her steak and chips, but I don't eat it every day. I've definitely cut down on meat. I have at least one meal a day without meat, and I have two meat-free whole days a week now, which is a big difference for me compared to what I used to be like. So I've cut down on meat. I don't have any food wastage. Oh my God, I hate wasted food. So anything that I don't eat, I make sure I put it back in the fridge, and I will use it as leftovers the next day to make a meal out of, or take it to lunch, or that I make some kind of random meal out of it. Usually bringing out the Asian side of me, I love to make a fried rice and shove loads of random stuff in it like a meal. So stuff like that. And I start doing that sort of thing. I make sure that I only use shorter wash cycles on my laundry, because actually I don't need to do those deep cycles. So actually I do the 30 to 40 minute washes and my clothes come out great. I make sure I turn off all my devices properly. So I actually, instead of sleeping my computer, it's shut down. I turn off my TV properly, not just sleep that as well. All these different things. And I pull my plugs out of things I don't use. I did little tiny things like that. And actually that saves me on my energy bills too. I made sure I had, I signed up to Octopus Energy, so they provide our energy. I obviously do recycling. I buy eco-friendly products where I can too. And anything else, I try to shop B Corp. So I did all these little things. And what I realized is that it did not impact my life at all. It didn't really cost me anything extra either. In fact, all of these things have actually saved me money and have made my life better. So I think the fear of going green and how many things there are and all these things you're expected to do, I think has been quite scary. I'll throw off another thing. In terms of I get public transport everywhere anyway, I'm in the middle of London, so there's no need for me to drive anywhere. So on the occasion that I do have to get a cab, I simply click the green cab.

So again, the electric vehicles are driving me instead of the fuel ones. So little things like that. And actually, when you start recalculating it, it has a big impact when you add it all up. So going back to businesses and what they can do, other than talking about it, again, you could do the same thing as a business. You could buy eco-friendly products and mainly the ones from B Corps. You could do the same thing, make sure you've got a recycling scheme and you could have like a meat-free Mondays or something and do it as a team and or when you go for tea meals, maybe pick a vegan one, for example, stuff like that. I would say also, since I do a lot of digital sustainability and I act as a consultant for many businesses when it comes to digital sustainability, I'd say look at that because a lot of people don't realize the impact of their emails and their website on the carbon impact. And every time they're sending emails, it has a carbon footprint. And I don't think you realize how much that adds up. And people say, oh, it's only tiny, but when you add up how many emails you're receiving and you're sending per day, it adds up to several miles in a car, I tell you that. And the more you have attachments and all these fancy things, it's a lot. Think about all your digital comms that you spend a day, how many files you're sending back and forth as well. Your digital footprint is pretty big. So first up, do you really need to be on every single person's newsletter? Probably not. It's also annoying. So spend a bit of time unsubscribing to those pesky newsletters. You will also declutter your inbox. You will save lots of time being distracted by all those emails. You will save lots of time from deleting those emails that you clearly never read, and you will lower your digital carbon footprint. And your website. Do run it through a website carbon calculator and check out what your website's carbon score is, because it's probably higher than you think it is. And then the very simple things that you can do are making sure that you don't have heavy videos on your website. And if you do, make sure they're hosted at like Vimeo or YouTube, and they're definitely not auto-playing, because no one likes that, and it's a waste of energy. I would make sure all your files are compressed, and I'll make sure that you don't have any unwanted content. So I don't know if you've done a content audit recently, but you should do.

We do one every quarter, and we try to encourage our clients to do the same thing as well. Go through analytics. How many times are people viewing all your pages? Are there any that people haven't viewed? Then that page is redundant, and can you find out a way to put that information on other pages that are better performing? Or how can you redo that content so it is actually useful? There's lots of different ways to do it. And actually making your website lower carbon actually improves the performance of it, which usually then improves the conversions of sales too. So people always talk about how going green is expensive. Now going green makes you more green. So you will actually make more money when you do a lot of these things. So really, there's not many, many excuses for going green. So what can you do now? How do you get better at this? How do you become more knowledgeable? So once again, talk to people. But other than talking to people, I'd say there are loads of courses out there. There are some good ones and some not so good ones, and how I even do some myself just to kind of see what's out there, learn a bit more, help buy that ways that I could educate people as well. So I undergo loads of sustainability courses just to see what they're like. One I would highly recommend is the Beamer's Future Learner course run by James Cannings. Full transparency, I sit on the Peer Sustainability Council with James. He is the co-chair and he is excellent. And he's actually the reason why I'm on this big sustainability journey. It was his course that I took first that inspired me to do this. So I would highly recommend it for that obvious reason. And I've definitely recommend that. There are a few out there. And I've also done one recently by a very well-known university. Let's just put it that way. I don't wanna slag anyone off really, but it wasn't the best value for money. I thought it was very, very low, low level. And you end up doing these like assessments. And I looked up who is assessing my stuff, and they barely have any experience with sustainability, and they are critiquing other people's work and writing incorrect things.

So it was a bit demoralizing doing that, didn't enjoy it, didn't learn anything, and actually just kind of got frustrated with the lack of accurate information. So sometimes big names don't always mean good quality. So skipping that, I'd say follow people on LinkedIn or other social media channels who are talking about it consistently, because especially on the likes of LinkedIn, there are lots of great bits of information. So just hit that follow button on anyone who's talking about sustainability, just to educate yourself on this sort of stuff. And then I'd say, if you see anything a bit iffy, if you are not sure about something, I mean, these bold claims, and I'd start calling it out, not accusing people because that's just confrontation on probably not the best thing, but just say, look, you're making these claims. Can you show me how you've done it? Because I wanna learn, or can you offer any advice? And you start to sniff out the bullshit when you do that, because if people start ghosting your questions and they never ever answer and they've got nothing to back it up, they're probably greenwashing. And you then need to start making sure that people like that are known for it because it's not great and they are essentially fraudulently trying to make sales because they're trying to portray themselves as a green for good company when they're actually doing the opposite. So you definitely wanna be making sure that people are legitimate. And I'd say, when you're not sure, just ask. Ask anyone. Obviously, again, find the people who are talking about it over and over again, not just the ones who look like they're doing it for a bit of a PR stunt. Find the ones who kind of embody this and do this as they're kind of living. And yeah, just see what opinions they have and they'll be able to point you in the right direction. But this is an education. This is a long journey. None of us are experts at this. I mean, people have been studying this stuff for years and they would obviously be more expert than other people, but this is consistently changing. But what I would say is that action's definitely needed. This is not something that we can talk about and say, oh yeah, we'll deal with this when the time comes, et cetera, et cetera. This has got a time limit. We've got about six years left and we have got so many goals to hit and we're not getting there yet. So everyone needs to pull their weight a little bit, even just a little bit.

As I said, little action actually accumulates to seeing some big results. So I would say spread the word, keep learning, keep doing every little bit you can, keep shouting out about it. And I would then try to do what you can and make a bit of a plan for it because every single business absolutely needs to have a sustainability plan in place. I think that's the least that you can do. And I think that lots of brands are also asking about this now. So I think you need to have all these plans in place. And remember also that sustainability is not just about environmental stuff. And I feel like actually I focused on that. I probably skipped a big bit at the beginning. I probably should have started at the beginning. And because this is a no bullshit kind of podcast, I'm not even gonna edit it and put it in at the beginning and pretend that I did this so seamlessly. I'm just gonna say that I forgot and talk about it now. So sustainability is, there's three fundamentals aspects of it. It's not just the environmental part. It's environment, economy and society. And all of them directly and indirectly impact each other. And so none of them stand alone. And that's why it's so important when you're looking at sustainability that you consider everything, like from materials and wastage, to how people treat each other and human rights and working conditions and all that sort of stuff. Because sustainability affects all of those things. So it's not just about climate change and environmental factors, which obviously is a big part of it, but it's everything. And so I think that when we're talking about this sort of stuff, I think we need to be really clear about what type of sustainability we're talking about. But I think it's, as I said, it's still a learning curve, and you've got so many different places to go. And depending on what industry you're in, you can even get sustainability certifications. So if you're in the food industry or fashion industry, there are definitely certifications and frameworks that can help you get the badge and seal of approval. And also the certifications kind of help you find other companies that you might trust and have gone that little bit extra, given that extra mile in order to prove that they're dedication to the cause. So that's it for me.

And that's my kind of comeback to this podcast. And as I said, I promise to do one every week now till the end of the year. So maybe I should give myself a bit of a forfeit if I don't do it. Well, I will definitely plant a clump of 250 trees if I don't, since we're doing a sustainability podcast. So that's what I will probably do. Anyway, I hope to hear from you guys next week and I will see you for another episode of Sniffing Out The Bullshit Then.