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Greenwashing Exposed: Why 400+ Companies Got Caught Lying About Sustainability in 2026 · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Did you ever wonder if when businesses were talking about sustainability that
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  they were actually speaking the truth?
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  They actually would do the ESG goals that they actually had?
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  Well, apparently not a lot of them did.
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  And there's a new regulation in the EU that is holding these companies
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  accountable, and we've kind of seen about 400 greenwashing-related
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  enforcement actions over a number of different countries already in
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  2026 over the US, the UK, across the EU, Canada, Australia, and India.
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  We're gonna talk about those today on today's episode of the How to Protect
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  the Ocean podcast, because this is where we talk about ocean news.
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  And ocean news is about how businesses conduct themselves in and around
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  the ocean and just even on land.
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  Because some of these businesses actually affect the ocean.
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  And when they claim that they are being sustainable and that they are doing good
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  things for the environment, they have to show what they are being good at.
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  Why are they being good to the ocean, or why they are
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  being good to the environment?
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  They have to prove and provide evidence that they do so, ' cause
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  if not, it's called greenwashing, and a lot of companies do it.
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  Over 400 already companies that had enforcement action taken
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  against them already in 2026.
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  We're gonna talk about that on today's episode, so let's get into it.
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  That's right, more than 400 greenwashing-related enforcement
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  actions have already been recorded globally in 2026 across the US, the
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  UK, EU, Canada, Australia, and India.
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  And the EU's updated consumer protection regulation entered into force in
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  2026, creating legal obligations for companies to substantiate environmental
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  claims made in marketing and in generic claims like sustainable or eco
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  without proof are now being prohibited.
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  So, look, I wanna kind of use the analogy of food labeling.
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  When I was first going to the University of Guelph for, what I wanted to do
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  was marine biology, I couldn't get into the marine biology program,
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  didn't have the marks to get in there.
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  I had an 85 average.
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  Like, let's be honest here, I was doing pretty well, but people were doing
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  better than me when they got in, so I had to go through another program.
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  It was the agricultural science program.
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  And during that first year, I took a course that looked at the economy,
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  looked at just, like, food labeling systems as part of the course.
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  And food labeling in Canada was really interesting.
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  It's always been interesting to me.
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  And then looking at what they claim and what's real is really interesting.
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  Fat-free in Canada doesn't actually mean fat-free.
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  It's 1.5%, or at the time when I learned, it was 1.5% fat.
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  Now, I'm not debating whether we should be having fat in our diet or non-fat in
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  our diet or things like that, but what I am saying is if you put down that
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  there's 0% fat in a food container, and there's actually 1.5% fat, that's not 0%.
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  1.5 does not equal 0%.
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  So it always, like, it always made me wonder, like, how do these companies
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  get away with this kind of stuff?
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  The numbers don't add up, but it's just a label.
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  And those labels have categories, and the numbers within those categories can fit
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  within 0% when it's actually 1.5% fat.
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  And there's a lot of things that go on in the labeling system, but this is
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  the analogy of what companies can do.
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  And actually, they weren't even held to these types of standards
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  in the past when they were saying, "Yeah, well, we're actually doing
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  great things for the environment." I remember, I remember in Canada, there
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  were companies that were doing…
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  And actually even the government, the Alberta government would
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  put on these commercials.
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  And these are the days where we were forced to watch commercials.
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  Like if I was watching the "Seinfeld" episode in the '90, '80s and '90s, and
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  I was waiting for like, you know, Jerry and George and Kramer and Elaine to come
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  back on, and during a commercial break, I would see one of these commercials.
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  And it was Alberta, and it was a beautiful day.
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  It was sunny skies, no cloud in sight.
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  And you see these rolling hills of like just different types of grasses
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  and plants and trees and everything.
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  And you see an oil and gas exec or an actor that's playing an oil and
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  gas exec talking about how, " Look, yes, not only are we providing energy
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  for the environment or for the people of Canada, but we're also making
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  sure that our environment is great."
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  And it didn't have to be a scene where this was a tar sand site.
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  Obviously it wasn't, because we would've seen the tar sands.
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  Or it doesn't show the ponds that they empty all their chemicals into and
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  that they refuse to clean up and the government doesn't hold them to clean
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  up, and they could be like $100 million to clean up 'cause there's so much
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  chemicals and so much sludge and they've destroyed everything in those waters.
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  Or they don't show how they fractured and cut up the land so much that migratory
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  animals can't even migrate anymore because they just don't have the land, because
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  it's been taken up by new spots for digging for oil and gas in the tar sands.
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  but you would see this commercial of this beautiful scene, almost
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  looked like "Little House on the Prairie" scene, where you just had
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  rolling hills, beautiful grasses, diversity, all that kind of stuff.
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  Yet in the reality of it was it's cloudy, there's digging, there's
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  pollution, there's fires burning because they need to burn some stuff off.
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  There's all this kind of stuff and industrial stuff and trucks and
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  things like that, and cut up land and trees that have died and so forth.
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  And that's just not the real thing.
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  That's greenwashing.
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  And they were able to do that for decades.
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  They were able to say that they were able to do this kind of stuff.
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  And there are companies out there that are saying that they can do
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  something good for the environment or that they're giving back to the
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  environment or they're donating a certain amount or they're holding beach
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  cleanups and things, and they don't.
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  And they don't do anything.
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  They don't give to charity, they don't do anything.
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  They just keep all that money for themselves, and they're just greedy.
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  And I think people are just sick of it happening.
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  And unfortunately, it takes away from companies actually doing good
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  work with the environment and like Philips Lighting, like we talked
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  about a couple of episodes ago.
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  Sustainability could turn into saving money as well as providing
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  a benefit to the environment or impacting the environment less
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  by less emissions and so forth.
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  But there's a lot of companies that are having that.
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  And like, it was kind of interesting 'cause there was a surge in sustainable
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  investment during the early 2020s that created the strong incentive to
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  use sustainability language broadly while backing it up pretty thinly.
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  And regulators are now correcting that.
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  They now realize that these companies are really misrepresenting what
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  they are doing to the environment.
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  They could be ruining the environment in one place and
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  helping the environment in another.
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  But if they say they're helping and they're not, now they're just ruining
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  the environment and maybe preventing something else from being helped.
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  I have no idea 'cause people think that it's being helped.
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  They're not donating for those efforts or anything like that.
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  I have no idea if that's happening, but that could happen.
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  Now, the SEC has already fined firms, including Goldman Sachs and DWS,
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  multiple millions of dollars for misrepresenting ESG processes, and
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  fined WisdomTree Asset Management $4 million for ESG-related misstatements.
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  And the states attorney general in New York, California, Washington, D.C., have
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  filed greenwashing suits under consumer protection and false advertising laws.
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  And in Canada, new penalties tied to environmental claims substantiation
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  have led to some companies to scale back public ESG statements entirely
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  to avoid litigation risk and a trend that we're now called green hushing.
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  So they realize that these laws are coming in, and they're like, "Okay,
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  we're just not gonna talk about it anymore Or we're gonna talk less
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  about it because technically we're not doing anything for the environment.
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  And we're actually doing worse.
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  So, , it's better to not say anything at all than to say something and
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  it's not, and you're putting the environment at risk, or you're
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  saying something that's not true, and you're gonna get fined for it.
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  You're gonna get some legal action taken against you.
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  So there's a divergent global approach.
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  The EU and the UK regulators aggressively enforcing ad standards, and the US
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  relying more on state AGs, so the attorney generals, and SEC litigation, Canada
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  introducing a private right of action.
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  So there are a lot of different actions that are happening because
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  these governments are trying to crack down on this lying, essentially.
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  Lying to say, "Hey, we're actually doing better for the environment," when they're
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  not, or we're saying, " Our products can be recycled," when they can't be.
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  Or, "We're taking back a lot of our products," or they don't.
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  There's a lot of things that will happen and greenwashing take place,
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  which unfortunately takes away from the significance of actually doing
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  something good, like a business actually doing something good and putting
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  sustainability in place and investing into that circularity part of business.
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  I think that's really what it comes down to.
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  So now what you can do as a listener is you can be skeptical.
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  Be skeptical of these vague claims like eco-friendly, green, carbon
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  neutral, and without any evidence behind them, don't believe them.
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  Make them show you the evidence.
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  If they claim that they're reducing emissions, say, "Where on your
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  website do you provide this report?"
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  And is it true?
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  Is it a true report?
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  They will go, these companies will go at lengths, and now that there's litigation
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  against it, they're probably gonna go at worse lengths to try and greenwash,
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  they're gonna be sneaky about it.
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  But also look for third-party verification rather than a
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  company's own marketing language.
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  You don't believe, like, a company coming out and saying, "Hey, we're
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  doing this," without evidence.
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  If you have a third party to say, "Actually, you know what? We're
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  staying right in the middle, and we're gonna say whether you're doing
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  it or not," that's who you believe.
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  Their skin in the game is to make sure that they are true and that to show that
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  there's some that are doing it and some that aren't in terms of doing good things
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  for the environment and being sustainable.
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  Tomorrow we're gonna be talking to Zena Harris who actually makes
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  sure that entertainment industries and production sites on, like,
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  Hollywood movies and TV shows and so forth are actually sustainable.
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  She works as a consultant.
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  She works with them to make sure that they can find everywhere they can make better
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  efficiencies for sustainability and add in some more sustainable workflows.
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  She makes sure that they do that.
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  Her company does.
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  And I have a conversation with her tomorrow talking about that type of
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  subject and why it's so important.
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  Like, we're gonna summarize everything we talked about Monday through Thursday
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  and why it's so important for these production companies and these big movie
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  companies that are executive producing and funding a lot of these productions
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  are making sure that these are being put in place because the people are demanding
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  it, the regulations are demanding it.
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  They can't greenwash it.
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  They gotta actually do it, and there are people like Zena who are in charge
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  who are making sure and working with them to ensure that they are doing the
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  right things and guiding them to make sure that they get to that avenue.
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  And I think it's a great business to be in, and we're gonna talk to Zena
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  Harris tomorrow, so don't miss out.
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  You wanna follow this show right now on your favorite podcast app.
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  And of course, if you wanna support the show, you can do so.
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  Go to speakupforblue.com/patreon.
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  That's the end of today's episode.
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  Enjoy tomorrow's interview with Zena.
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  Make sure you listen to that, and I would love to hear your thoughts on that.
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  That's on this podcast called How to Protect the Ocean podcast, and
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  you have been listening to the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
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  Have a great day.
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  We'll talk to you next time, and happy conservation.