Super spin and the greenwash cycle: why ESG is never clean

Super spin and the greenwash cycle: why ESG is never clean
Is this where the concept of "greenwashing" comes from? (Image: Stockvault)
David Chaplin
It all started with towels, according to what should be a legal dramedy cult classic.Kicking off proceedings in Australian Securities and Investments Commission v LGSS Pty Ltd: The Judgment this month, Justice O’Callaghan cites the alleged origin story of "greenwashing". O’Callaghan refers to “American authors” who traced the inspiration for the now-infamous term to “an unpublished 1986 essay by an environmentalist named Jay Westerveld” where he deconstructed a “hotel sign urging patrons...

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