Greenwashing : awareness and perception of responsibility among graphic designers

Abstract

This thesis explores the awareness and sense of responsibility of creative communication agency leaders regarding greenwashing. Greenwashing is a misleading communication practice that abuses consumers’ growing concern for sustainability, leading to growing mistrust of consumers around truly sustainable products and slowing down the sustainability movement. While the legal responsibility lies with the client commissioning the misleading visuals, graphic designers and other creatives function as the mediator between the client and the consumer, thereby carrying out the practical work. This thesis uses a qualitative approach to explore the awareness of four Maltese creative communication agencies’ leaders around greenwashing and to explore their potential responsibility as communicators. The study draws its importance from the 2024 introduced ‘Green Transition Directive’ (EU 2024/825) that turns a moral consideration for graphic designers into a legal wrong. Firstly, the interviews revealed that “greenwashing” can easily be mixed up with other issues within the wider domain of sustainability in designers’ minds. Another finding is that a potential lack of sense of responsibility among creatives may be explained by the belief that individual action does not have a sufficient impact to tackle those problems. Since lawmakers and companies are perceived as more powerful, some interviewees attribute the main responsibility for introducing positive environmental change to these parties. All agencies interviewed have principles for the selection of their clients and declined clients for ethical reasons. Being able to be selective and act ethically also depends on the establishment of an agency. At the beginning of one’s career, however, there can be the temptation to overlook design ethics in an effort to establish professional acumen and market exposure.