For the last five years, I have grown interested in sustainability and felt a need to research deeper into sustainable marketing methods and the faint line between green marketing and greenwashing among many other interesting subjects. I graduated from Aalto University in 2021 with a bachelor of arts majoring in design. I specialized in sustainable design and circular economy.
When selecting a project and company my priority was to find a wicked problem that handled any or some of the following themes: sustainability, responsible marketing, greenwashing and transparency. Demola’s project topic Sustainability impact of international expert organizations was appealing to me and I found myself thinking of ideas to proceed with the subject. On further reading, I spotted the bullet point:
- How does the sustainability reporting look like from the outside? How might the organizations go beyond greenwashing and make meaningful decisions that have an impact?” (https://blogs.tuni.fi/sdl/students/projects/project-topics/)
I have been studying and working around topics that handle responsible communication. This year I’ve had an itch to learn even more about transparency, greenwashing and responsible communication. These topics have everything to do with the ” how might organizations go beyond greenwashing and make meaningful decisions” question. For a company to go beyond greenwashing, it must recognize its strengths and low points in sustainability and be able to communicate them clearly and smartly to the outside world. To back up its claims, the company must share their sustainability data, such as a long-term sustainability plan and prove it takes actions to engage with the plan and prove the claims.
Other interests of mine are the human mind, human nature and how a topic such as nature relationship affects our consumption choices or sustainability knowledge or knowledge of greenwashing.
Therefore I find the other question of the wicked problem rather interesting: How does sustainability reporting look like from the outside? Here we could use classic methods such as interviews, and polls combined to research or such as tools to determine answers to this question. However, I am keen on finding more creative ways of including the outside public in the research process. A great way to include the public is to make them feel that their words or actions have an impact. Therefore a creative workshop could be an option to consider.
My interests lie perhaps in reliable green marketing methods regarding the question ”How might the organizations go beyond greenwashing and make meaningful decisions that have an impact?” And the faint line of green marketing and greenwashing and the reasons why the line is so faint.