Greenwash

Origin

greenwhitewash

Full definition of greenwash

Noun

1. A false or misleading picture of environmental friendliness used to conceal or obscure damaging activities.
• 2010, Meegan Jones, Sustainable Event Management: A Practical Guide, People can be cynical about companies hiding behind green ideals, their radars finely tuned to detect a greenwash.

Verb

1. To disseminate such information about (something).
• 2011, Elaine Wellin, Kristen Seraphin, Project Censored, Censored 2012: The Top 25 Censored Stories of 2010-11, But what happens more often is that media “greenwashes” dirty energy sources (coal, gas, nuclear power) as “clean”—a particularly dangerous notion because it belies the threat they pose to our planet and human health.

Related terms

• bluewash
• whitewash