by anine.hallen -

The effect of Greenwashing and how to avoid it

Greenwashing is defined as “to make people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is” (https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/greenwash). This is done to attract customers. Business Wire writes that there is a “significant global paradigm shifts in how consumers view sustainability and the associated generational differences in willingness to pay for sustainable products and services,” (The Global Sustainability Study 2021 by Simon-Kucher & Partners).(https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20211014005090/en/Recent-Study-Reveals-More-Than-a-Third-of-Global-Consumers-Are-Willing-to-Pay-More-for-Sustainability-as-Demand-Grows-for-Environmentally-Friendly-Alternatives). This leads to a wish for companies to seem sustainable, even though they might not have the right or the knowledge to call themselves that. This leads to a gap between claims and truth. 

Greenwashing

“Research carried out in Europe found that 42% of green claims were exaggerated, false, or deceptive” Harvard Business Review (HBR) writes (2022) about a “sweep” of websites carried out by the European Commission and national consumer authorities. They found this:

  • In 37% of the cases included vague terms like “conscious” and “eco-friendly”
  • In 57% of the cases there was no easily accessible evidence to back up the claims that were made

(https://hbr.org/2022/07/how-greenwashing-affects-the-bottom-line, https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_269)

HBR found that customers realize and are aware of the gap between the claims and actually actions enough to impact their satisfaction levels with the companies. This carries out to affect their relationship with the products and it affects the economy for the company in an impactful way. However, the customers “only care to a point.” If a company is seen as a high quality, innovative etc. brand, the satisfaction levels of the customers were unsignificantly affected even if the company was perceived as greenwashing. This result should, according to HBR, still be read with caution as a bigger or later research could show a greater effect.
(https://hbr.org/2022/07/how-greenwashing-affects-the-bottom-line)

How to avoid greenwashing, but still communicate sustainability

What HBR advices is that managers should pay equal attention towards their communicating their goals outwards and to their companies ability to achieve these. It is better as a company to promise something achievable and overachieve than the opposite. (https://hbr.org/2022/07/how-greenwashing-affects-the-bottom-line) This tactic can be seen in one of my previous posts about Northern Playground, and their communication outwards about how “no fashion is sustainable”. They still manage to communicate that their clothing is of the better alternatives if used right without risking a backlash for not being carbon neutral.

In addition to paying better attention to what is communicated outwards in statements, it can also be useful to use voluntary standards. E.g. EcoLabel Index (https://www.ecolabelindex.com) provides a vide variety of labels which can be used to legitimatize a companies claims. Here there is also room for mistakes, as many of the labels can be completely in-relevant or weak. Using recognizable and well known labels will likely give the best effect.

Avoiding greenwashing should be a high priority, but that doesn’t mean a company shouldn’t strive to reach high. As HBR writes it: “It may well be the case that they (ed. customers) are willing to forgive companies that tried and legitimately failed to implement their goals but customers might also be less forgiving towards those companies that attempted to cheat their way by exaggerating their credentials.” (https://hbr.org/2022/07/how-greenwashing-affects-the-bottom-line)

by anine.hallen -

Design philosophies of Northern Playground and H&M Group

In this blog I will look into two design philosophies from two very different companies. What are the benefits of these strategies, and what are the challenges?

Northern Playground, “Our job is to make it easier and more fun to own less.”

Two main principles:

  • Duration (physical and non-physical)
  • Multi functionality (for all occasions and adventures)

Looks and functionality:

Northern Playground mainly uses one design strategy. This is designing with simple designs, multi functionality and keep-worthiness. Their design process is slow and never puts looks over functionality. Northern Playground never launch something new unless they belive it fills a hole in their collection and that it will stay a classic “forever.”

Quality:

The clothes from Northern Playground should have long lifetime and high quality through repairability, less chemicals, needing less washing and designing the garment first and then setting an appropriate price. The clothes should also be possible to recycle.

Supply chains:

Employees in their supply chain should have more than a living wage. They should have good lives and good working conditions. In addition there is full transparency in who Northern Playground partner with.

Read more:

Read more about Northern Playgrounds design strategy here: https://www.northernplayground.no/en/content/design-philosophy, and more about their buisness models, processes etc. here: https://www.northernplayground.no/en/environment

H&M Group, “…guide to designing more circular products.”

Three pillars, designing products to be:

  • used more
  • made to be made again
  • made from safe and recycled or renewable inputs

Looks and functionality:

According to H&M Group’s “Circulator Guide” they try to place each product in a “Frequency and Lifespan” diagram before they decide on materials etc. The default before they as themselves a few questions is wear monthly and lasting for 3 years. This is not particualary ambitious.

If we wear 6 garments (pants, undershirt, shirt, sweater, jacket + underwear/socks etc.) every day, one new outfit every day in the month, for 12 months a year that would mean you would have to buy and toss 2160 garments in 3 years. This is excluding pyjamas, home wear, workout clothes etc. If most of these clothes are then placed in H&M Group’s “Mid” category they are not that designed well for recyclability, and most will end up outside of that system anyways as recycling clothes is a very overwhelmed industry.

Quality

H&M Group has a different approach than Northern Playground when it comes to the quality of their clothes. They argue that clothes which are designed for being in the “Extensive” product category should have physical and some non-physical (eg. lovability) durability. However, products in the “Mid” and “Light” category should NOT be designed for durability, but rather recyclability. They at best put medium pressure on repairability and avoiding waste.

Supply chains:

Ad H&M Group is a giant in fashion is hard to get the overview of all the suppliers and working conditions. They are part of the Transparency Pledge.

Read more:

Design strategy of H&M Group: https://hmgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Circulator_Guide_v1.0.pdf

What to take from this?

  • Northern Playground is designing for “timelessness,” but will probably struggle to target people who want to express themselves through fashion with their muted colors and simple silhouettes.
  • Northern Playground designs every piece in the same spirit. This leads to transparency and trust for the customer
  • H&M Group design with different strategies for how to reduce the overall environmental impact. For as long as we produce clothes ment to only last a short while this is probably a good thing as it reduces emissions. ““Focusing on developing all products to be more durable could potentially lead to us using more resources than a garment requires.” However, this makes it more unclear for the customer what type of garment they are buying. It also drives prices down which lead to overconsumption.

by georg.kiraly -

Whats the actual status of awareness of younger people?

The renowned institute for opinion polls “Gallup” conducted a detailed survey among about 1000 young people (< 30 years) on behalf of the State Secretary for Youth Claudia Plakolm (ÖVP). The results were interesting and are summarised below.

It should be emphasised that this study aimed at a broad cross-section of the population. This means that demographic diversity and balance were taken into account among the respondents of this study. Although 56% of the 14 to 30 age group are interested in political life, only 16% are very interested, a figure that clearly has room for improvement.

  • The internet is clearly the first place to go for political information; TV and social media follow at a certain distance. The value for TV is surprising here, since TV consumption in this age group has been declining for years in favour of streaming offers; however, the use of TV counters may also have been subsumed here. Daily newspapers clearly lag behind TV, but still achieve a usage share of 39%.
  • In the area of social media, Instagram dominates very clearly ahead of Facebook and YouTube; TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are, as expected, in the youngest group.
    TikTok, Instagram and Snapchat are, as expected, very significant in the youngest group aged 14 to 19. To what extent do such media, which are primarily used for
    entertainment, are actually used for political information.
  • Not surprisingly, people consider their own parents to be the most credible source of political information. Statistically, TV, daily newspapers, school/teachers, radio and friends follow at a certain distance. The internet is already lagging behind somewhat here, with social media and influencers at the bottom. This shows that despite intensive use of social media in this age group, people are aware of the credibility problems of these media (44% of users consider them to be less or not credible).

In my opinion, the following three graphs are the most interesting ones. It shows which topics are the most famous ones for people under 30, which channels are used to consume information about politics and which ones are the most credible ones:

Through which channels is political content received most? (by age)
How is the credibility of these sources assessed?
How should the focus of policy change in the future?


Quelle: https://www.bundeskanzleramt.gv.at/bundeskanzleramt/nachrichten-der-bundesregierung/2022/11/demokratiemonitoring-zeigt-interesse-der-jugend-an-politik.html , am 24.1.2023

by georg.kiraly -

Where does the Generation Z come from?

The focus in these texts, which are strung together, is placed on the so-called “Gen Z”. These are people born between 1997 and 2012. They are mostly the children of Generation X. As a result, various social anthropological characteristics can be attributed to this still young generation. Their characteristics are reaching from extremely good abilities to handle digital technologies to the imposed ability to handle performance pressure and suffering and/or profit from an academic world.

Almost a third of all people worldwide belong to Generation Z, and they are the ones who could make our society fit for the future – if only they were allowed to. Today’s 10- to 27-year-olds are characterised by concerns about their environment and the highest rate of mental illness to date. At the same time, they are more networked and technologically fit than any generation before them – they are the first true digital natives.

But with values or worldview was given to the Gen Z from their parents. While the technical devices have changed, the way of consumptions stayed the same or increased by the ongoing globalization. Status symbols developed into objects of desire and were more important than political engagement. With the arrival of the television as a mass medium, Generation X experienced the transition from analogue to digital media. Later, e-mail and the mobile phone also represented important means of communication. The uncertain times surrounding the East-West conflict created a certain pessimism.

Generation Z’s anxieties are reinforced by the fact that they perceive news in a different way than their parents or grandparents did at the same age; young people consume content on social issues and events almost constantly. With just a smartphone, people can access a buffet of reports 24/7 through social media, search engines, news sites and television. Social media is fast overtaking traditional news channels among young people. According to broadcast regulator Ofcom, Instagram, TikTok and YouTube are now the three most used news sources for UK young people, while older generations who grew up consuming news through print media, radio and television still prefer these traditional channels.

» Among 14- to 25-year-olds, TikTok is even the most-used app, ahead of YouTube and Instagram. “This is huge when you consider that TikTok is only four years old,” says study author Magnus Folten from WeCreate. “No platform has grown that fast before.” Nearly 18 percent of the time 14- to 37-year-olds spend on their mobile phones goes to TikTok. Instagram, YouTube and TikTok combined account for more than half. The latter services in particular have lost out to the competition from Beijing. What interests young people most in social media are not so much the socially relevant topics: According to the survey, environmental and climate protection came in a distant ninth, while fashion, video games and music were mentioned much more frequently. «
writes the german newspaper “Der Spiegel” on the 02.12.2022.

by georg.kiraly -

How to raise awareness of politics among people of younger ages (Gen Z & Alpha)

It is said that the future of a society lies in its children. Besides the focus on personal development or the management of several crises is there an awareness or interest of the political future of our society? What are the influences or reasons that younger people are avoiding or focusing on political topics?

Two world wars, several economic crises, slave trade, archaic sexism, monarchy, autocracy, democracy – to name just a few points that have shaped the European continent. Sometimes it seems as if some of the traumas of history are forgotten after a short time and the mistakes are constantly repeated. But who is responsible for breaking this cycle of experiencing and forgetting? Is it fair for a society to always look to the youngest generation and leave the future to the children of the third millennium? If you look at the latest voter flow analyses of the last National Council elections in Austria (of the under-30s), you can see that society is slowly drifting apart. The parties of the centre are becoming less and less interesting for various reasons and the camps of the political fringes are slowly gaining ground. This development is certainly not bad per se – but when you look at the issues or the way politics is communicated, you sometimes feel like you’ve been transported back in time.

But what experience and history teach us is that peoples and governments have never learned anything from history and acted on the lessons that could have been learned from it.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

In my opinion this quote still fits pretty well. It is up to us as a society to pass on the knowledge and experience we have gained. But what about the willingness of Generation Z or Alpha to absorb and use existing knowledge, or are these generations in particular already severely underestimated? What factors play a role when children or young people engage with the topic of history or politics for the first time or turn away from it? I would like to deal with these and other questions in my future research, because I think that a peaceful future should be an interesting topic for all of us.

My motivation for the project is to raise the political awareness of children and young people. I think it is wrong that young voters today are seen as a potential electorate for political parties, but are not really interested in issues that affect young people. This state of affairs creates disenchantment and weakens confidence in our democratic apparatus.

It is this state of affairs that I will be analysing over the coming weeks. I will focus on young people’s interest, disenchantment and enthusiasm towards political content. When is information interesting, what are the social backgrounds behind various opinions and to what extent can one react to this topic as an interaction designer?

After collecting some information on the topic, I would like to focus on my possibilities as a designer. I am convinced that as designers we share a certain quality – creativity. Through creative ways of interaction it becomes possible to target specific groups in society. There are various ways to share information or stimulate discourse. I am curious to see where my research will lead me and what kind of discussion can be concluded from it.

© afta putta ganawan, pexels.com 2022