Typology of the greenwashing activities of companies

Following environmental changes and challenges in the current century, environmental protection has become one of the concerns of consumers. While the focus of many businesses is on sustainability, corporate social responsibility and green action, some companies make false claims of greenwashing actions by environmental activities, thus seeking to gain and maintain their legitimacy and place in the minds of consumers. The concept of greenwashing appeared in the middle of the 1980s to describe abusive practices or exaggerating sustainability claims to gain market share. On the other hand, greenwashing is defined as misleading or deceptive environmental claims and disseminating false information by organizations to promote the public image of the company's environmental responsibility. The importance of paying attention to the phenomenon of greenwashing is because it not only causes confusion and doubts among consumers but also potentially eliminates the need for innovation in green products. Therefore, the present study was conducted with the aim of providing a comprehensive typology of the greenwashing measures of companies.

With the aim of providing a typology of the greenwashing practices of companies, this study has done an in-depth review of 11,718 articles in the field of greenwashing published in databases from 1986 to 2022 with a scoping review method.

With the analysis conducted on the existing typologies in 38 selected articles, a new and different and comprehensive typology of the greenwashing phenomenon is presented in this study based on four dimensions, including environmental reports, environmental performance, greenwashing levels, and the dimension of how to show environmental performance. Therefore, through combining the mentioned dimensions in the proposed model, 16 types of companies are identified under the headings of green companies and with the execution of green strategies. The include green companies claiming green strategies, brown companies executing greenwash strategies, brown companies claiming greenwash strategies, green companies executing the characteristics of green products, green companies claiming the characteristics of green products, brown companies with executional of greenwash products, brown companies claim greenwash products, green companies without executing green strategies, green companies without claiming green strategies, brown companies without executing greenwash strategies, brown companies without claiming greenwash strategies, green companies without executing the characteristics of green products, green companies without claiming the characteristics of green products, brown companies without executing greenwash products, brown companies without claiming greenwash products.

The first group, namely green companies, refers to those that have good environmental performance in line with the use of acceptable green strategies. These companies seek to display their strategies in various ways, including providing positive environmental reports. In other words, green companies seek to gain and maintain legitimacy and competition in the market by showing their green strategies. This group of companies can, thus, be named obvious strategic greenwashing companies. The second group, green companies with appropriate performance in the field of environment, present positive environmental reports and highlight their environmental strategic claims. They can be named obvious strategic greenwashing companies. Another group of green companies are operating ones with good environmental performance. They want to display the green and environmentally friendly features of their products, which is done through images and association elements. Naturalization with colors (such as green, blue) or sounds (such as the sound of the sea, birds) evokes the feeling of the naturalness of the product in people. This group of companies can be named obvious greenwashers. There are also companies operating in the markets that bring the features of their products to the attention of consumers and stakeholders through making claims in environmental reports. This category of companies can be named green companies claiming the characteristics of green products. They can also be named obvious greenwashers. The other group is green companies that, despite using appropriate environmental strategies and having an acceptable green performance, do not want to show their activities. This group of companies can be named strategic silent greenwashers. Similarly, considering the groups based on four dimensions and 16 types of companies introduced in the proposed model of this research, it is possible to distinguish the activities of companies that really have green actions from companies that have greenwashing activities and to prevent the greenwashing activities of those companies. Therefore, necessary measures should be taken in various industries and a solution should be found for the current activities of greenwash companies. The findings of this research indicate that, in order to reduce the damages of greenwashing on the consumer, the environment and other groups, this phenomenon should be considered as a kind of fraud, and the opportunities and justifications of greenwashing should be reduced. Future researchers can use this typology to identify and prevent greenwashing practices of companies active in various industries