However, thanks to the rise of the internet and social media and the proliferation of data on ESG performance, consumers are now acutely aware of whether organizations are actually practicing what they preach. Conversations with advocates, regulators, consumers, and executives suggest that the most powerful way for businesses to prove they do so is to support meaningful regulations to ensure that their entire sector or industry will do the right thing.
This includes exiting lobby groups that fight against such measures, communicating more regularly with regulators, and endorsing and advocating for more science-backed regulation.The term greenwashing was coined by environmentalist Jay Westerveld in 1986 as a rebuke to companies that claimed to be environmentally friendly without offering any evidence to back up their claims.