UPSC Prelims 2022 Q80: Greenwashing — Meaning Explained
Which one of the following best describes the term "greenwashing"?
- Conveying a false impression that a company's products are eco-friendly and environmentally sound
- Non-inclusion of ecological/environmental costs in the Annual Financial Statements of a country
- Ignoring the disastrous ecological consequences while undertaking infrastructure development
- Making mandatory provisions for environmental costs in a government project/programme
Answer: (a) Conveying a false impression that a company's products are eco-friendly and environmentally sound
Statement-wise explanation
- a: correct — Greenwashing means making false, misleading, unsupported or incomplete claims that a product, service or company is better for the environment than it really is. India's regulators use this meaning. SEBI's circular of 3 February 2023 on green debt securities uses it, and so do the Central Consumer Protection Authority's Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing and Misleading Environmental Claims, in force from 15 October 2024. Both target vague labels like 'eco-friendly' or 'green' that have no proof behind them.
- b: incorrect — This describes the gap in ordinary national accounts that green accounting fills. Conventional GDP does not subtract natural resource depletion or pollution damage. The fix is environmental-economic accounting under the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), which MoSPI compiles for India as EnviStats India. Leaving these costs out is a measurement problem, not a false claim made to the public, so it is not greenwashing.
- c: incorrect — Pushing ahead with infrastructure while ignoring its ecological damage is a failure of environmental impact assessment and of the precautionary principle. Greenwashing is about how an activity is presented: it creates a false green image. Simply ignoring harm, with no claim to be green, is not greenwashing.
- d: incorrect — Making environmental costs a mandatory part of a project's budget means internalising them. That is the opposite of misleading anyone about environmental performance. It is closer to 'polluter pays' and to environmental costing in project appraisal than to greenwashing.
How to eliminate
The word itself gives the answer away. It copies 'whitewashing', which means covering up faults to make something look better than it is. So 'greenwashing' should mean putting on a false green appearance. Only one option is about giving an impression or making a claim; the other three describe accounting or planning practices. Option (d) can be ruled out quickly because it describes a pro-environment rule, and a term ending in '-washing' would not mean something positive. Options (b) and (c) are the real traps: both involve hiding environmental costs. Ask who is being misled and how. Greenwashing works through marketing and claims made to consumers or investors, not through gaps in national accounts or project planning. The fact to remember: greenwashing = misleading environmental claims, and India now regulates it through SEBI (green debt securities, 2023) and the CCPA (advertisements, 2024).
Know more
Greenwashing is the practice of making a product, company or investment look more environmentally friendly than it really is. Usual tactics:
- Vague words such as 'natural', 'eco-friendly' or 'green' with no proof
- Hidden trade-offs: highlighting one green feature (recycled packaging) while hiding a larger harm (a high-emission product)
- Cherry-picked data: showing only favourable research
- Fake or self-made labels that look like certification
- Empty future pledges: 'net zero by 2050' with no actionable plan
The term is usually credited to environmentalist Jay Westerveld (1986). He criticised hotels that asked guests to reuse towels 'for the environment' when the real motive was saving money.
How India regulates it
| Regulator | Instrument | Covers |
|---|---|---|
| SEBI | Circular on dos and don'ts for green debt securities (3 Feb 2023) | Bond issuers: no misleading labels or cherry-picked data, no diverting green bond money to non-green uses |
| CCPA (Dept. of Consumer Affairs) | Guidelines for Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing and Misleading Environmental Claims, 2024 (in force 15 Oct 2024) | All advertisements: generic claims need substantiation; specific claims (recyclable, compostable, carbon neutral) need credible certification or independent verification |
Don't confuse these terms
| Term | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Greenwashing | False impression of being green |
| Green accounting / Green GDP | Subtracting resource depletion and pollution damage from national income |
| EIA | Assessing a project's environmental impact before approval |
| Green bonds | Debt whose proceeds must fund green projects (a common target of greenwashing) |
| Green taxonomy | An official list of which activities count as green, which makes greenwashing harder |
In the news
Before the 2022 exam, the COP26 Glasgow summit (November 2021) had produced a wave of corporate net-zero pledges, and money was pouring into ESG funds and green bonds. That raised worldwide concern about whether 'green' claims were genuine. Greenwashing became a regular term in financial and environmental news, which made it a natural pick for a definition question.
NCERT Concepts to Revise
- Greenwashing: The term the question asks you to define.
- Green accounting: One option describes leaving ecological costs out of national accounts; that gap is what green accounting addresses.
- Environmental impact assessment: One option is about ignoring ecological consequences of infrastructure, which is what EIA exists to prevent.
- Green bonds: Green bonds are where Indian regulators first tackled misleading green claims, through SEBI's 2023 circular.
- Green taxonomy: A green taxonomy defines what counts as green, which is the main tool for checking environmental claims.