Greenwashing scandals – the practice of misleading the public about what action a company or organisation is taking to protect the environment – are on the rise. As the climate crisis intensifies, greenwashing represents a significant obstacle to meeting global climate change goals.
A recent example was the organising committee for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games, which vowed to design the most eco-friendly games in history by halving plastic waste. However, the commitment later sparked concerns of greenwashing because of the overuse of plastic bottles and cups by its sponsor Coca-Cola. For its part, Coca-Cola said it “supported ambitions” “to reduce single-use plastic and added that it had also provided soda fountains and glass bottles at the games to that end.
