Greenwashing and education: An evidence-based approach

Abstract

In recent years, environmental issues have become the focus of societal concerns. In this context, the business world has been consolidating a form of green marketing management that merely conveys ambiguous or misleading messages rather than reflecting environmentally friendly business practices. This phenomenon is called greenwashing. This systematic review identifies and analyses the relationship between greenwashing and education (and at the more specific level of environmental education or education for sustainable development) in the academic literature. The sample consists of 20 papers retrieved from different databases using a systematic search strategy. As a result, an analysis of greenwashing trends in relation to education and its main approaches is presented: greenwashing literacy as an avoidance tool, the presence of the phenomenon in higher education institutions or in resources for educating, tools for identifying misleading green advertising and education, and anti-greenwashing educational proposals. Finally, some recommendations for identification and avoidance are presented.

Keywords:

• greenwashing
• education
• environmental education
• literature review

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Institut de Recerca i Innovació Educativa de la Universitat de les Illes Balears (IRIE-UIB) under Grant PID_ODS212212.