greenwashing

Blend of green +‎ whitewashing (or green +‎ -wash +‎ -ing).

greenwashing (usually uncountable, plural greenwashings)

1. The practice by people, organizations and states of presenting themselves as environmentally-friendly and progressive in order to disguise or divert attention away from their actual environmentally damaging behavior.

   Synonym: greenwash

   Hyponym: sustainwashing

   • 2019 December 2, Jillian Ambrose, “Fossil fuel lobbyists push to dilute EU anti-greenwash plan”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     Fossil fuel lobbyists are trying to water down planned EU rules to stop “investment greenwashing’ by setting science-based criteria for any investment which lays claim to being environmentally sustainable.

   • 2023 August 9, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Chiltern services powered by vegetable oil”, in RAIL, number 989, page 13:

     It's not greenwashing - it makes sense for a whole load of reasons. It demonstrates that we are not just accepting that we have to use diesel for years to come.

   • 2025 June 9, Tom Perkins, “Toxic truth? The cookware craze redefining ‘ceramic’ and ‘nontoxic’”, in The Guardian‎^[2], Guardian Media Group, retrieved 9 June 2025:

     In fact, no legal definition for “nontoxic” or “ceramic” exists, and the marketing has drawn greenwashing accusations exacerbated by the companies concealing their pans’ ingredients.

• greenwashing on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

greenwashing

1. present participle and gerund of greenwash

• greenscamming
• purplewashing
• pinkwashing
• redwashing

• outgreen