Greenwashing in Wood Substitute Products: The Case of PVC Window Frames

Abstract

Wood is a renewable material, and advancements in machinery have made it possible to produce wood-based products in large quantities. This has led to environmental problems, which in turn have increased consumers’ environmental concern. This concern has caused consumers to prefer environmental-friendly products. Alongside green products and green marketing, greenwashing practices, which are not actually green but exploit consumer sensitivity, have also become widespread. These deceptive claims confuse consumers and provide an unfair competitive advantage against genuinely environmentally friendly products. Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) windows, which can be used as a substitute for wood windows, were chosen as a research focus, and the greenwashing practices of enterprises manufacturing PVC window were investigated. The research was conducted using deductive content analysis. The corporate websites of the enterprises were examined in terms of greenwashing. Artificial intelligence was used, but identified greenwashing types were checked by the researcher. The study found that PVC window manufacturers most frequently resorted to greenwashing involving no proof, vagueness, and hidden trade-off approaches. Greenwashing types were also examined by topics, revealing that “general environmental benefits” is the most common type.