*Per Alejandro Chocolat
The need for an ecological transition is increasingly necessary due to the frantic advance of global warming. A transformation of our habits towards more sustainable actions is important, but the greatest responsibility, without a doubt, lies with companies, which are responsible for emitting approximately 70% of the world's pollution.
There is a growing amount of information and awareness alerts about sustainable habits. This is reflected in the increased supply of products that help reduce an individual's impact on the environment. Research carried out by Futerra reveals that most consumers are willing to choose sustainable brands if prices are comparable and that approximately one third are willing to pay more for sustainable products. This opportunity related to the growing change in consumption habits towards a more sustainable model is in some cases being exploited by companies to obtain profits in unethical ways, such as greenwashing (in Brazil known as “lavagem verde”).
Greenwashing is defined by Investopia as misleading or outright false information about the environmental impact of a company's products and operations. Generally, the claims of this marketing strategy involve a small part of the truth that is greatly exaggerated or omits aspects of the product that are directly harmful to the environment.
The term greenwashing was coined in 1986, when environmentalist Jay Westerveld published an essay in which he criticized a luxury hotel for posters asking guests to help the environment by reusing their towels. Yes, reusing towels reduces demand for water and electricity, but the signage was a strategy by the hotel management to reduce its laundry costs. Why the dishonesty? Because the hotel deduced that guests would be more motivated to protect the environment than to help reduce the hotel's costs. The environmental theorist created this term because the situation involved a lie disguised as a non-existent environmental commitment.
While this practice is more than well known to users and authorities alike, according to a Harris Pol survey, 58% of companies admit to greenwashing, taking legal and financial risks. This is partly due to users' growing awareness of sustainability when making purchasing decisions, and partly due to the lower cost for companies to invest in advertising strategies to appear sustainable rather than tools to become sustainable.
Moving from environmental intent to action is a challenge that involves direct knowledge of the product's entire life cycle. This process should include understanding the impact of one's own operations, suppliers, the transportation of materials and parts, the process of packaging and shipping products to retailers or directly to consumers, consumers' use of products, and the waste they may generate in the future.
There are quite advanced and scientifically based solutions, such as the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), which allow users to assess the impacts of a product throughout its existence. These solutions are based on commercially available databases that quantify the environmental impact of virtually all of a company's decisions and actions. Unfortunately, LCA has primarily been used to document the impacts of past actions to see if the impact is diminishing, but not to proactively identify ways to reduce it.
It is now possible to couple these databases with technological developments that integrate Life Cycle Assessment calculations into design, engineering and manufacturing software. These solutions allow all users to calculate and communicate the impact of their actions, allowing them to identify more sustainable options. By measuring these parameters, it is possible to recognize the points that most compromise sustainability and thus plan strategies to improve it.
This development shows progress on a Digital Twin, which is a scientifically accurate virtual model that allows product managers to set sustainability goals for their development programs. In addition, companies can also use this hard data to demonstrate their sustainability claims and the reliability of their environmental impact statements.
The incorporation of this type of solution provides the necessary data for companies to have real information to demonstrate their progress towards a more sustainable model. In this way, it ensures that corporations are not tempted to resort to greenwashing and can adopt science-based measures that will lead them to a more sustainable model.
*Alejandro Chocolat, Managing Director of Dassault Systèmes for Latin America
Notice: The opinion presented in this article is the responsibility of its author and not of ABES - Brazilian Association of Software Companies
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