Review: ‘The Great Greenwashing’ By John Pabon

Written by John Pabon, the author of Sustainability for the Rest of Us, The Great Greenwashing is many things. It is a rant, in the tradition of Fast Food Nation or No Logo, against the evils of greenwashing. It is a consciousness-raiser that shows how not only companies but also nation-states, sporting events, and celebrities, greenwash. But it is also a “how-to” manual for the conscientious reader, and a motivational book to help prevent environmental doomism from taking hold.

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The book opens with an ordinary, real-life scenario: you, the reader, in a supermarket, attempting to make an ethical choice. After that, Pabon takes some time to outline the types of greenwashing rampant today. These include green speak and deceptive claims (“increased by 50%” when the actual amount increased from 2% to 3%), misdirection and selective disclosure, and greenscamming. 

It is easy to understand his outrage: cases such as the fossil fuel industry’s unchecked support of climate change denialism, widespread astroturfing, and opaque lobby groups, such as the oil industry body “European Institute for Climate and Energy”, deserve it. 

The book also takes the time to highlight the importance of looking at the entire supply chain when evaluating a company’s green claims. A full chapter is devoted to fast fashion and many horrifying details on working conditions as well as waste, including the fact that the world discards 100 million tons of textiles annually (rising to 134 million by 2030). “No amount of organic cotton can offset a building collapsing on top of your workers,” the author points out. 

The middle section of the book takes the reader through the various types of greenwashers, from the unredeemable – tobacco, defense, and fossil fuels – to those who are more trustworthy. After musing on the nature of trust, he includes pharma, grocery, and med-tech in the latter category, which may reveal the author’s current Australian setting. However, “There’s no such thing as a perfect company,” he admits. “Even the most mission-driven, socially-responsible, ethical B-Corps will still have some problems when you look under the hood.” Readers are exhorted to be patient: companies, like battleships, change direction slowly.

The responsibilities of individuals, companies, and governments are examined in turn. First, he delivers a critical but fundamentally optimistic examination of companies. A company’s trajectory will often begin with an executive’s pet project before becoming embedded in the corporate culture, the book claims, but, “[a]s companies continue to evolve … the available space for greenwashing will increasingly shrink.” 

Pabon draws on his own experience in Shanghai, the United States, and Australia, and does not hesitate to highlight some successful and nuanced cases he was involved in through his work at management consulting company BSR. The thread of motivation is consistent throughout the book: is greenwashing perpetrated by well-meaning beginners as they commence their sustainability journey, or by bad actors? He celebrates the achievements of his clients (DocuSign, BMW, various China-based companies, and even Walmart) which are little known outside a small circle. 

The chapters on state-sponsored greenwashing are the most troubling. 

The sustainability claims of The Line, a Saudi government property project, are judged as “all bullshit”: the country routinely violates human rights, the project is environmentally “unforgivable”, and it won’t clean up Saudi Arabia’s fundamental oil issues. Australia is highly compromised due to its reliance on mining, while the Climate Action Tracker ranks Singapore – a “perfect city” to some – as “critically insufficient” in doing what it needs to. Meanwhile, the European Union is far ahead in sustainable thinking, but years after saying “[w]e’ve got to get rid of Russian oil and gas” now imports fossil fuels from elsewhere. Even Sweden is not blameless; its forestry industry relies on clear-cutting all but 3% of the country’s forests. “Hyper-national” organizations like FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) are also among the worst offenders, both in environmental impact and in their attempt to greenwash and misdirect.

The final chapters begin to address the question of what to do about it all. The book asks the reader to consider the role of activists, NGOs, and celebrities. This includes business celebrities and billionaires: neither Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, nor the attendees of the World Economic Forum in Davos escape criticism. “The people in these rooms have zero problems imagining themselves as more intelligent than the rest of us, with all the answers and most of the resourcing (but none of the willingness to get things done). In my world, that makes them the biggest greenwashers of all.” 

In the end, however, we are reminded, “It is your responsibility to change.” 

The author gives good insights into the types of activism that work and the kind that defeat the original purpose, and points out examples of when collective action has seen results: for example, when the Royal Shakespeare Company cut sponsorship with BP due to input from younger viewers. “You can do anything,” we are reminded, “but you can’t do everything.” 

He also warns against individual greenwashing: while there is no such thing as a perfect environmentalist, Pabon asks readers to assess their own lifestyles: “Are you a vegan who drives a big SUV?” He also takes the position that the best thing you can do for the climate is to have fewer children.

Readers who tire of academic tomes will enjoy the book’s chatty, internet-influenced style. “Google it,” the author instructs. “Go ahead. I’ll wait.” Unlike conventional business or popular science books, many sections feel as if they were taken from the transcript of an entertaining conference presentation. 

The author makes lengthy detours into topics like a detailed description of the Rana Plaza and Triangle Shirtwaist disasters, a plot summary of Everything Everywhere All at Once, and the complete legal trials of Steve Donziger, who attempted to take on Chevron about an oil spill in Ecuador and was pursued, imprisoned, and ruined as a result. These tangents can be confusing at first – why exactly are we reading the lyrics to Sarah McLachlan’s “In the Arms of an Angel”? – but the purpose is generally explained by the end of the chapter. The summary chapters that bookend each section are thus a sound addition to a narrative that might otherwise have risked wandering. However, while the book contains good and complete references, it lacks an index.

There are also moments where the author’s comparisons can be puzzling and the book’s conclusions less than rigorous. The prevalence of corporate misbehavior is calculated by numbers of results on Google; a “gaslighter” tobacco company is bizarrely compared to a student from Mali who takes a French class to get an easy A. It can also be difficult to get a handle on the book’s tone, which oscillates between ranty and encouraging. 

Above all, the ultimate messages – take a second look before being taken in by sustainability claims, take the right kind of action, and don’t give in to climate doomism – are the right ones. Readers who want not only to get angry but also to make a difference will find a kindred spirit here, as well as a guiding light for the future.

The Great Greenwashing: How Brands, Governments, and Influencers Are Lying to You
John Pabon
2024, House of Anansi Press Incorporated, 296pp

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