The Drivers of Greenwashing

More and more firms are engaging in greenwashing, misleading consumers about firm environmental performance or the environmental benefits of a product or service. The skyrocketing incidence of greenwashing can have profound negative effects on consumer and investor confidence in environmentally friendly firms and products. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive framework that examines the external (both institutional and market), organizational and individual drivers of greenwashing and then use this framework to develop recommendations for managers, policymakers, and NGOs to decrease the incidence and severity of greenwashing in practice. * Magali A. Delmas is a professor of management at the UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and the Anderson School of Management. Email: [email protected] Vanessa Cuerel Burbano is a PhD student in Strategy and Policy at the UCLA Anderson School of Management. Email: [email protected]