Sustainable, CO2 neutral, eco recycling and green climate friendliness. Success has many fathers… Many self respecting large companies have climate strategies and deploy climate marketing. They don’t spare words when it comes to communicating in a climate friendly way. Green words are tossed off randomly aiming to be fashionable, and to obtain acknowledgement from the surrounding world thus affecting the bottom line.

But do the green words have the the expected effect? There are several examples of companies doing “green washing”. For instance car manufacturer Peugeot instituted a new climate award which could only be won by their own cars. False climate communication reduce the term ”sustainable” to an empty phrase, free for anyone to use and abuse. Companies using the climate as a convenient marketing tool, are instead turning an important and urgent cause into hot air in the mind of the consumers, leading to ”climate constipation” and ”climate nausea”.

Putting climate on the public agenda is important, of course, and it is very gratifying to see that many companies turn around and join the effort to reduce their impact on nature. The decisions that lead to the most significant improvements on the global climate are made by large companies and industry. Their line of action can dramatically reduce the CO2 emission or help raise capital to the victims of climate change. But action speak louder than words, and it is important that the companies act up to their good intentions before as well as after COP15.

If everyone is communicating climate, the words loose their meaning. It becomes cheap climate pop with corny sing-along lyrics – ”POP15: let’s climate all night long” – enjoyable and danceable in the moment, but leaving the audience with a queasy feeling and a major climate hangover when the party is over.

Illustration by Anne Gramtorp