Semblance of Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Analysis of Corporate Greenwashing in the United States

This paper addresses the problem of greenwashing, the unseen environmental issues associated with it, and it concludes with an offering of potential policy options that better protect consumers and promote sustainable business practices. Using quantitative data, Chapter 1 lays out the prevalence of greenwashing in U.S. industry in recent years. Additionally, this chapter scrutinizes the operating practices of the offending firms and how they degrade vital ecosystem services. Chapter 2 explores greenwashing through a historical lens, following the unethical practice shifts meaning over time into the current era. Chapter 3 utilizes an economic lens and cost-benefit analysis to reevaluate the total cost of operations for greenwashing firms and make clear to both sides of the market the cost society incurs from industry’s development. Chapter 4 examines greenwashing from a political angle and seeks to understand the U.S. Government’s role in the greenwashing epidemic and why its policy has failed to prevent and regulate corporate greenwashing, including how our legal system is manipulated to serve private interests and snuff out dissent. In a culmination of the understandings from chapters 1 through 4 chapter 5 offers a spread of policy options that not only combat greenwashing, but also incentivize the reduction of GHG emissions, protect and inform consumers, and create the liquidity needed to help government organizations regulate as intended.