Greenwashing and my final post

Hello again,

Well this will be my last blog as I have now officially finished my 20 day internship and the semester is coming to an end. It has been great doing my placement at Landcare Australia and I intend to continue volunteering there.

I know many people have said they would advise you to do your prac over a month full time, however I have rather enjoyed dragging it out and getting a proper feel and better knowledge of the company and industry it is operating in over this extended period of time. The only downfall I can see if that I may not had been given as much responsibility as if I had completed it in full time status.

In my final week an article was published in the Sydney Morning Herald placing Landcare in an unfavourable light. As it turns out, in February the SMH printed an article saying that Landcare’s recently formed partnership with Mt Franklin was a disaster, labelling it a greenwashing attempt on Mt Franklin’s part and that landcare were sell outs. As I was not part of the organisation when this happened in February, and was unaware of this issue at the time.

Throughout my public relations degree the concept of greenwashing had been analysed in different case studies, however as far as I recall, none had talked about the impact being linked to these companies can have on not for profit organisations. This got be thinking about the repercussions this may have on Landcare. At the moment I am actually torn between whether this was right of wrong. My thoughts are that I perceive Mt Franklin to be doing the right thing. Similarly to their breast cancer campaign, Mt Franklin would be donating a tree to plant for each marked bottle sold. Clearly Mt Franklin has some environmental issues with the fact they use so much plastic to manufacture their plastic water bottles etc, however I do still view them as being genuine and trying to combat some of the damage they are doing as this campaign wasn’t heavily publicised and a clear greenwashing attempt.

That being said I do believe that Landcare would have taken to account these risks prior to forming the partnership. Also as sponsorship for the company has dropped off significantly in the last year, I believe it was a positive decision for Landcare to form the partnership and the ‘a tree for a bottle’ campaign. If the support had been in a monetary form, this may have been a bigger deal, but as it was via the donation of trees, you can see this is directly aiding in Landcare’s mission of a sustainable environment.


It’s interesting and a good warning to see that some media will put even the good guys in a bad light if they believe it’s plausible and will sell.

I have truly had an amazing experience and definitely feel like I am more prepared to tackle the real word now that I have encountered some of the challenges and perks involved first hand.

If I could give you one tip, it would be to make sure you end up working with something you are passionate about. Not one day while I was at Landcare did I not want to be there or it felt like work. I love doing my part to help the environment, as little as it may have been and I hope that in the future I will be able to find a permanent position I am just as passionate about.

Thanks for listening guys!
Kristy