How a Sustainability Copywriter Can Help You Break Through the Greenwash
Read time: 9 Min
About the Author: Lauren Plug is a Chicago-based sustainability copywriter who helps brands tell their story and stand out from the crowd of greenwashers with blogs, emails, and website copy. In her free time, she can be found researching the warmest tights and gloves for Chicago winters and hanging out with her loved ones and cats.
You started your ethical business to do better for the planet. Now, you want to share it with people because it’s exciting—and awesome. But just how much should you explain about the ins and outs of sustainability within your industry?
You’ve thought about bringing on an eco-friendly copywriter, but will that even help?
How honest and transparent do you need to be?
For every sustainable decision you make in your eco-friendly business, there are two more unsustainable choices lingering in the background.
Not everything can be 100% sustainable, and sometimes sharing too much information can backfire. You scroll on Instagram, or TikTok, or Google, or the news and you see … companies lying, embellishing truths, cherry picking facts, and people trying to have the loudest opinion about why none of your efforts matter in the long run.
It’s greenwashing, it’s negativity, and it’s loud. How are you supposed to compete with that? Do you even want to? Is it worth it?
It is worth it, and you don’t have to stoop to their level.
One of the upsides of global interconnectedness—there’s a whole community of people out there who care about the same issues you do. Not to mention, there are a few other communities of people who:
Simply haven’t heard of those issues
Want to learn more about them
Want nothing to do with them (until you convince them otherwise)
With the right strategy and the right words, you can break through the greenwash and reach all of these communities in a meaningful way.
A sustainability copywriter will help you reach your audience of conscious consumers who want to hear what you have to say.
A Quick Refresh on Greenwashing
Greenwashing is (all too often) used as a marketing tactic to mislead consumers into believing a company is more sustainable than it actually is. It can assume the form of:
Lying
Bending the truth
Misusing data
No matter how greenwashing is accomplished, it’s harmful and unethical. How so?
It can hurt small businesses like yours who are actually doing the right thing.
It can cause consumers to distrust that brand and the entire industry.
It can influence people to purchase a product from a brand that doesn’t live up to its claims.
It can prevent any real action that might actually propel the industry forward in a sustainable way.
It can ruin a brand’s reputation—and sometimes even brands that affiliate with it.
If you’re sitting here worrying that your brand might be greenwashing, good! It’s always something to consider and check in with.
But always remember—it is possible to put out amazing content without greenwashing, and that’s exactly where an eco-copywriter can help you!
How An Eco-Friendly Copywriter Can Help You Wade Through The Greenwash
To answer the question from before, yes. Bringing on an eco-friendly copywriter will help you tell your sustainability story.
We don’t just write words. We research, we dive into the audience, the product, the industry. We see what people love, what people hate, what they want to hear, and we help you tell your story (and sell your products).
Let’s look at a few ways a sustainability copywriter can help you cut through the greenwash.
1: It’s not what you’re saying, it’s how you’re saying it.
Whether you have a predefined tone and style for your brand or you’re looking to develop one, bringing on an eco-copywriter can do wonders.
The ‘tone’ of your brand helps determine how your brand reads. Are you serious, more laid back, do you make jokes, use slang, etc? It’s the attitude of your copy.
The ‘style’ of your brand is a general set of guidelines. Do you use perfect grammar or is it more colloquial? Do you start sentences with coordinating conjunctions like ‘but, and, yet, so’? Do you spell out numbers or use the numerals? The style helps define how your brand is represented.
The tone and style are important for eco-friendly copywriters to understand at the beginning of a project. They help copywriters create consistent copy, crafting an overall message and feeling that winds its way through the content. All which help your audience to develop a trusting relationship with you.
2: Don’t get angry, get even.
It’s only natural that when you see a brand or someone doing something wrong/misleading, you want to call them out. Right?
Maybe not.
There is a time and a place for calling greenwashers out, and that place isn’t your regular content.
People don’t like to be told they’re believing in the wrong thing.
People don’t like to be told they’re being fooled.
People don’t like to believe that a brand they regularly follow and (and support) has deceived them.
And if you consistently call out greenwashers, you risk looking like a tattletale instead of a trustworthy business.
So what can you do?
Work with your sustainability copywriter and put out the facts.
Don’t be the bearer of gossip, be the bearer of right news.
Release good content that helps people learn and understand in a digestible and relatable way. Allow them to understand so they can research on their own and learn how to identify brands that aren’t 100% honest.
An example:
Let’s say you found out a company that uses reclaimed ocean plastic in their products was actually making their own litter and pollution. Yikes!
You could put out a blog about where you get your second hand plastic from, including:
The organization you work with
Your vetting processes and certifications
Templates that help consumers reach out to companies on their own
Red flags that often signal greenwashing in this space
3: Go heavy on the facts.
Facts and stats are your friend; they help you tell a story. But as an old coworker of mine used to say, “with big data comes big responsibility.”
When working statistics and facts into a piece, a good sustainability copywriter will do at least three things.
They’ll avoid or reduce the overwhelm that comes with data.
They’ll identify the right ones at the right time, helping you drive the point home.
They won’t manipulate or cherry pick the stats just to fit the narrative you want.
As eco-friendly copywriters, we’re passionate about sustainability, and that passion shows through in our quality of work.
But copywriters can’t just be good writers, research is a large chunk of writing good copy. It’s in everyone’s best interest to weave in stats that are well-researched and come from reputable sources.
If the goal of the content is to make Point A but the research is pointing towards Point B, an eco-copywriter won’t force it, manipulate it, or omit it, but will work on changing the piece in a better, more honest direction.
When you start to use data incorrectly, you’re dipping a toe into unethical territory. And whether you realize it or not ethics are a large part of sustainable copywriting.
4: Remember, sales doesn’t have to be icky.
Being an eco-friendly copywriter goes hand in hand with ethics; we never use scammy, icky, or unsavory sales techniques in our work. So what techniques do we use to help your business grow and flourish?
Trust
Content builds trust with your target audience. It does this by never lying, by not shaming people, by not calling out other businesses, by helping people understand your product and the benefits of it, and by following through.
Good Content
Good content builds trust with your audience; and people buy more from brands they trust. It answers people’s questions and objections about your products and your company. And good writing + good facts + SEO will help you rank well in Google and drive more traffic to your site.
A well ranking article leads people right to you and can continue to do so for years to come.
Authenticity + Storytelling
Authenticity can go a long way. Let people get to know you and your brand.
Who are you?
Who is your team?
What values do you stand for?
Why did you start your business?
Why do you care about sustainability?
What are you doing to make your community a better place?
What are you doing to make the world a better place?
How do your products/services work?
How do they help people now and over the course of time?
Using storytelling—and good ol’ fashioned personality—lets the world know that there are people and values behind your company. Once again it helps build trust and communication with your audience.
Information
Copywriters use information and facts instead of pushy sales techniques to help sell your product/service. This information includes topics such as:
What’s great about your product/service?
How is it going to benefit people?
What problem does it solve?
How is it good for the planet?
Do other people like it?
What do other people have to say about it?
Speak up on issues you care about, apologize if you did something wrong, and just like in any relationship, communicate with your audience and make them feel heard.
“Conscious” is the best word to describe your audience for a reason. Your consumers spend more time looking for brands that align with their values and are willing to spend more on the brands that do. They also will not tolerate brands that lie (*cough* greenwash *cough*).
Great Copy > Greenwashing
With an eco-friendly copywriter on your side, you don’t have to worry! You don’t have to lie and use scammy sales techniques to sell your products.
We’ll help you genuinely share who you are, who you want to be, and what you’re currently doing with your conscious audience—and we’ll do so in a casual, well-researched, well-thought out, and easily digestible way.
Are you ready to break through the greenwash and show the world how amazing your brand is?
