Explosion of the whitewash...

Hey you, haven’t you heard?! Whitewash, greenwash, bluewash, brainwash are GOOD for you! That is 21^st century- era of political correctness, good intentions and big illusions! You have done something wrong and keep doing it? Do not worry, I am sure you did not mean to hurt anyone, you did not have any bad intention and definitely it was not your fault!

Interesting, fascinating, brilliant... the world is scrupulous cleanliness-mad and that is not only temporary spring impulse to tide up but long term programme to rewash a tainted reputation of big corporations.

The world has been warned of the evil practice of big names. Let’s have a look once again at the definition of greenwash, this time provided by CorpWatch:

green*wash: (gr~en-wosh) -washers, -washing, -washed 1.) The phenomenon of socially and environmentally destructive corporations attempting to preserve and expand their markets by posing as friends of the environment and leaders in the struggle to eradicate poverty. 2) Environmental whitewash. 3) Any attempt to brainwash consumers or policy makers into believing polluting mega-corporations are the key to environmentally sound sustainable development 4) Hogwash. (http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=242 )

To other forms of whitewash belong:

Bluewash

"Bluewash" refers to corporations that wrap themselves in the blue flag of the United Nations in order to associate themselves with UN themes of human rights, labor rights and environmental protection. Even companies with practices antithetical to UN values, such as Nike, Nestle, and Shell, have attempted to bluewash their image. Bluewash is typically associated with attempts by "corporate humanitarians" to weaken UN agreements, in favor of voluntary, toothless codes of conduct regarding social and environmental issues.

Sweatwash

With child labor and sweatshop abuses at the fore of social issues, it is natural that companies notorious for use of sweatshop labor try to divert attention from their factories' practices. Examples include Nike's school curriculum about downcycling of sneakers, and Reebok's Human Rights Awards.

Deep Greenwash

Behind the green PR is a deeper corporate political strategy: to get the world's governments to allow corporations to police themselves through voluntary codes of conduct, win-win partnerships and best practices learning models, rather than binding legislation and regulation. We call the corporate strategy of weakening national and international environmental agreements while promoting voluntary measures Deep Greenwash. Deep Greenwash may occur behind the scenes or in coordination with public forms of greenwash such as environmental image advertising.

All above definitions come from the article Greenwash Fact Sheet dated on 22^nd March 2001 and available online from: http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=242