Greenwashing should be seen as a positive sign that companies are moving in the right direction, according to the founder of British energy firm Ecotricity.
“It’s everywhere,” Dale Vince told CNBC’s Tania Bryer. “But you know, I take it as a good thing. People say to me, ‘Oh, there’s greenwashing, it’s a bad thing.’
“And I say, you know, it’s not a bad thing because 10 years ago, these companies that are greenwashing today, they didn’t care, right?”
“Now they care. They see they have to do something and so they greenwash. I say this is progress. I’ve seen it before and it’s not that far from them greenwashing to doing something real. “
Vince’s comment will undoubtedly raise eyebrows in some quarters.
The debate surrounding greenwashing has become increasingly fierce in recent years. The blame is often placed on multinational companies with vast resources and a significant carbon footprint.
It is a term that the environmental organization Greenpeace UK calls a “PR strategy” used to promote a company or product as environmentally friendly, without meaningfully reducing its environmental impact.
Founded by Vince in 1995, Ecotricity is headquartered in Gloucestershire, England, and calls itself “Britain’s greenest energy company”.
The firm says its electricity is “100% green” and describes its gas as “a mix of carbon-neutral natural gas and sustainable green gas”.
During his interview with CNBC, Vince – who is also the chairman of English soccer club Forest Green Rovers – talked about the need to develop a variety of sources for a net-zero future.
“We have to reach a combination of wind, solar, I think tidal lagoons have a big role to play,” he said, before highlighting the importance of battery storage.
“For gas … we can make it from grass, we’re building our first project right now that will connect to the grid in February.”
According to Ecotricity, its £11 million (about $13.5 million) “green gas mill” is to be fed by “herbal lays – a mix of grasses and herbs, sown and grown in the field next to the plant.”
The company states that such facilities “do not require agricultural land and do not compete with food production.”
Vince also talked about the need to act now to ensure a more sustainable future.
“I think we can be independent of green energy in our country within about 10 years if we keep going,” he said.
“We have all the means, it is economic to do it. In fact it is less economic not to do it.”