UNEP launches Green Marketing Challenge

Put your sustainability knowledge to the test with this gamified greenwashing marketing course.

Do you know greenwashing when you see it? Do you fall prey to sustainability myth-making by brands without realizing it?

When it comes to sustainability, words—and word choice—matter. As consumers, everyday we buy into the narrative that brands sell us when it comes to their “commitment to sustainability” or “going green.” But what are these brands actually doing? How easy is it to piece apart real brand efforts towards implementing better practices from outright greenwashing?

If you work in fashion or luxury and care about sustainability, then we highly recommend you begin with the Sustainable Fashion Communication Handbook from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). Intended for marketers, brand marketers, media, and others, this playbook “presents the need to redirect fashion communication towards sustainable and circular solutions as a creative opportunity, and provides a much needed framework when policies around how to communicate environmental claims increasingly comes into force.”

If you want to put your sustainability skills to the test, look no further than the the UNEP’s Green Marketing Challenge, developed in coordination with the United Nations Systems Staff College and the One Planet Network Consumer Information Programme. 

This interactive course assesses your ability to recognize greenwashing and whether you can identify which “green claims are more likely to promote sustainability and empower sustainable consumption decisions.” Building on the ten principles of the Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information, this gamified experience is a unique, interactive way for brands, marketers, and students alike to put their sustainability knowledge to the test. The challenge takes a maximum of 2 hours to complete.

According to the Green Marketing Challenge course brief, the goal of this interactive assessment is not only to “[s]upport transformative action for sustainable consumer information;” but also it is to “identify the barriers and enablers to apply the principles to their own labels to recognize how to strengthen their own sustainability claims.”

Also, if you’re interested in fashion and sustainability, you should subscribe to the UNEP Textile Expert Community Newsletter.