Greenwashing: a critical realist approach to the study of false ecological claims

Greenwashing is on the rise as a strategy for maintaining business-as-usual through false ecological claims. This paper articulates an approach to the study of greenwashing guided by the philosophy of critical realism. In its first move, it identifies greenwashing as depending on the possibility of socially conflating the relation between transitive and intransitive objects of knowledge. The paper discusses theories of truth suitable for detecting mismatches between ecological claims and performances, with particular attention to correspondence theory and alethic truth. It then provides an illustrative reading of the oil corporation Preem’s greenwashing campaign through critical realism’s ‘holy trinity’ and explores ‘ideology’ and ‘fetishism’ as concepts for judging falsehoods and theorizing greenwashing. The paper ends with a step-by-step guide to the critical realist study of greenwashing and its emancipatory absence.