RobinO111079
Please provide feedback for the post below? “The idea emerged in…
Please provide feedback for the post below?
“The idea emerged in a period when most consumers received their news primarily from television, radio, and print media, so they couldn’t fact-check the way they could today” (Edwards, 2023). I wanted to start off my discussion touch on the point of how the term “Greenwashing” was created. In my opinion the average consumer is not worried about fact checking whether or not a product is truly being green. The example given with Fiji water really put this concept into perspective for me. I love Fiji water, I think it tastes delicious, and I always loved reading the story on the bottle with all the reverse osmosis and what not. What I never considered was is this company truly helping, or harming the environment? This class is the first time I have even considered a concept like this. As a consumer I love looking for “Green” brands, but never thought to look into their practices.
“Now it’s Volkswagen’s turn. The company, which owns 70 percent of the U.S. passenger-car diesel market, is in major trouble for cheating on diesel-emissions tests” (Atiyeh, 2021). Automotive is my go to since I work in the industry. Green vehicles are becoming all the rage. Volkswagen came out with these compact diesel motors because they were supposed to be more fuel efficient. I remember looking at one of these motors after they came out with the scandal and really taking in things I would normally glance over due to it being a routine service. The tricks VW pulled blew my mind as a service mechanic. The cars computer could detect when something was hooked up to the OBD:2 port. This is a port in all modern vehicles that allow us to go in and “talk” to the car as we say.
I think this constitutes as green washing because the company stated that these diesels are more fuel efficient. This would also mean that they release less carbon emissions. Since the company lied for years about the carbon emissions I believe VW used greenwashing to push this motor in their vehicles. https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7g5p/2014-volkswagen-passat-tdi-clean-diesel-event In this advertisement the motor is described as “Clean diesel” a better alternative. If I was the CEO of Volkswagen I would have ran the advertisement if I did not know about the different mode the vehicle entered when it was hooked up to diagnostic and testing equipment. On the other hand if I was privy to the information I cannot say what I would have done. A lot of individuals felt this was going to be a major blow to VW but in the long run it did not seem to affect the company that badly. Nearly a decade ago I might have ran that ad. In todays political society I most definitely would not have run the ad.
Atiyeh, C. (2021, November 29). Everything you need to know about the VW diesel-emissions scandal. Car and Driver. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a15339250/everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-vw-diesel-emissions-scandal/
Edwards, C. (2023, February 21). What is greenwashing, and how do you spot it? Business News Daily. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10946-greenwashing.html
iSpot.tv. (n.d.). 2014 Volkswagen Passat TDI TV spot, ‘clean diesel event’. iSpot.tv | Realtime TV Advertising Performance Measurement. Retrieved February 25, 2023, from https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7g5p/2014-volkswagen-passat-tdi-clean-diesel-event
