'GREEN WASHING'
by Sandra Laville of The Guardian
and Professor of Biology, Alex Ford of University of Portsmouth

Water companies are adopting disinformation tactics similar to those used by the fossil fuel and tobacco industries with the widespread use of greenwashing to downplay the environmental harm they cause, a study says.

​

Environmental scientists analysed the communications of the nine main water and sewerage companies in England, and compared them with a framework of 28 greenwashing tactics employed, researchers say, by the tobacco, alcohol, fossil fuels and chemical industries.

​

The water companies have adopted 22 of these tactics to downplay environmental harm, misrepresent information, undermine scientific research, shift blame and delay action, the researchers say:

Water Companies use ‘Playbook’ of tactics by Prof Alex Ford

The lead author of the research, which was published on Monday in the journal Nature Water, Prof Alex Ford, of the University of Portsmouth’s school of the environment and life sciences and institute of marine sciences, said: “Water and sewage companies have prolonged environmental injustice by using a playbook of tactics other large polluters have relied upon in the past to mislead the public and influence government agencies or laws.”

The research suggests water companies have softened the language around raw sewage discharges by rebranding sewage treatment facilities as “water recycling centres”. They have also described sewage overflows as “heavily diluted rainwater” even when untreated sewage was present and posed a threat to public health.

​

The paper, titled Water Industry Strategies to Manufacture Doubt and Deflect Blame for Sewage Pollution in England, highlights what the researchers say is water companies misrepresenting their environmental performance while facing scrutiny for discharging untreated sewage for 12.7m hours into English waterways between 2019 and 2023.

​