Retailers may be doing all they can to be environmentally friendly, but apparently, their customers and even their own employees don’t give a fig about it. For them , these companies are simply doing it to boost their image.
96 per cent of companies in the sector believe that operating sustainably is important to their reputation. However, only three per cent of customers think businesses are fully open and honest about their actions, with 33 percent believing they exaggerate what they are doing to become more sustainable in order to gain consumer favour.
I know I do tend to be optimistic when I hear of companies’ greening efforts, but I don’t blame other people for looking at the other side of things. It’s highly possible that a lot of companies simply greenwash, and I myself sneer at products which are so obviously not green, and yet have labels that proclaim their eco-friendliness. Consumers’ opinions are pretty deadly, but those of the employees are worse because they’re on the inside and know how things work, and if they themselves don’t see any attempts to be environmentally friendly, there may be more than a grain of truth in that.