How to Spot a Business That’s Greenwashing

Julie Starr • January 21, 2022



As being eco-conscious becomes more and more popular in the business world, it is unsurprising that some businesses have jumped on the bandwagon without actually fulfilling their eco-friendly promises. With greenwashing becoming a more significant issue, it is vital to be able to spot what businesses are fulfilling their end of the bargain and who is just jumping on a trend. Businesses can actually gain a lot out of being eco-friendly.

Here are some simple steps for spotting a business that is greenwashing:

Is the company involved with an eco-friendly charity?

Make sure you do your research on the charity the business claims to support. The charity’s policy is just as important as the business’s policy, as by supporting the charity, they are endorsing its views. It could be worth checking on companies that support the same charity, too, as this can reveal different motives behind their eco-friendly promises. If you are looking to build your own website, through a website like Red Spot Design , you should consider how the company advertises its support of the charity.

Does the company have a mission statement that is eco-friendly?

If you are picking some holes in their mission statement , chances are they aren’t as genuinely eco-friendly as you think. It is best to use common sense when it comes to this step, for example, if they claim to use all-biodegradable materials but their packaging is all plastic, that obviously can’t be true.

Is the company transparent about its environmental and social policies?

It is important to discover what their employees are like and where their warehouses are. This can reveal things that perhaps the company itself hasn’t considered when advertising how eco-friendly they are, such as co2 emissions from the warehouse or bike-to-work schemes.

Ensure you research the product thoroughly and take a look at the company’s website and marketing materials. Do your own research on everything they put into their product and the labor behind it. Each will reveal whether the company is genuinely eco-friendly. 

Does the company have a track record of implementing sustainable business practices?

Look for certifications like B Corp, Fairtrade and Organic certification.

Are they transparent about their environmental impacts?

For example, do they openly publish information regarding their carbon footprint, water usage, and waste disposal statistics?

Is the company transparent about its environmental goals?

Make sure the company has a plan for reducing its environmental impact. Look for a reduction in carbon footprint, water usage, and waste production.

Are they transparent about their social goals?

Look for companies that will reduce poverty through fair wages and working conditions. They should also have policies that support local communities, women’s rights, and health care.

This is a great place to start when researching a business. Look at the employees, suppliers and customers to see if they can make improvements in these areas as well. There is nothing wrong with the entire business not being eco-friendly, as long as they are transparent about it.

If you answered yes to all of these questions, chances are that you’re dealing with a genuine eco-friendly business. You can go forth and purchase guilt-free! The more you use these steps, the easier it will become to instinctively know whether you want to support the business or not.

Smart Sensors, Smarter Supply Chains: Enhancing Traceability in Food & Beverage

By Julie Starr • June 20, 2025
In today’s competitive food and beverage (F&B) landscape, traceability is no longer a compliance checkbox—it’s a differentiator. The ability to track every step of a product’s journey, from origin to shelf, is vital for regulatory accuracy and to ensure brand integrity, supply chain agility, and consumer trust. Add smart sensors to the mix: the quiet, tireless observers revolutionizing supply chain intelligence. Traceability Has a Data Problem Despite digitization across many F&B operations, most traceability systems still rely on fragmented or manual data inputs. Batch numbers, barcodes, and handwritten logs often stand between a supplier and clarity when things go wrong. This approach struggles with latency and scale. When contamination or delays occur, root cause analysis is slow, costly, and damaging. Smart sensors shift this paradigm by embedding real-time, contextual intelligence into every stage of the supply chain . Whether monitoring humidity in transit or recording fill-level precision in bottling plants, they remove the guesswork by turning physical conditions into structured, time-stamped data. From Passive Monitoring to Active Optimization Sensors used to be reactive tools, alerting operators to anomalies. But smart sensors now play a proactive role in process control. They measure, and they interpret. For example, temperature sensors embedded in cold chain logistics can dynamically adjust cooling systems or flag threshold breaches before spoilage occurs. These advancements reduce waste and loss at a systemic level. In a production facility, smart sensors integrated with PLCs can enforce recipe compliance, verify clean-in-place processes, and detect micro-stoppages in real-time. This enables operations to pivot faster and isolate inefficiencies before they cascade downstream. Trust is Built on Transparency Consumers are paying more attention to what they eat and drink. They’re looking beyond labels, expecting visibility into how ingredients are sourced, processed, and handled. Smart sensors make this level of transparency achievable —without burdening manufacturers with excessive manual oversight. By capturing metadata throughout production and distribution, these sensors create a digital footprint that’s tamper-resistant and instantly accessible. When this data is integrated with a central platform, brands can respond confidently to audits, recalls, and quality assurance challenges with a level of precision that would be impossible through legacy systems. Intelligence Without Infrastructure Overhaul One common misconception is that adding smart sensors requires a top-down reinvention of supply chain infrastructure. In reality, companies can deploy edge sensors in a modular, scalable way. Many modern solutions offer plug-and-play functionality, allowing for fast integration with existing machinery and MES systems. This is where suppliers like alps-machine.com are reshaping expectations. Rather than pushing proprietary ecosystems, they design sensor-ready equipment with interoperability in mind. This future-proofs investment and keeps businesses nimble in the face of regulatory or market shifts. Designing for Data Longevity Sensors are only as powerful as the context they capture. A smart implementation ensures the data collected can be standardized, stored securely, and accessed meaningfully across departments. This means moving beyond local dashboards toward centralized, queryable datasets that inform everything from supplier contracts to marketing claims. As AI and predictive analytics become more accessible, these data-rich environments will unlock new capabilities—such as predicting demand spikes based on real-time freshness indicators or adjusting production schedules dynamically based on in-transit sensor feedback. Final Thoughts: Smarter Isn’t Optional Traceability isn’t solved by more paperwork—it’s solved by embedded intelligence. Smart sensors don’t just help businesses know what happened; they help prevent the wrong things from happening at all. For companies in the food and beverage sector, adopting smart sensors is less about chasing innovation and more about enabling resilience, speed, and confidence in every decision.

Eco-Friendly Garden Prep: Summer Tips for a Greener Business Space

By Julie Starr • June 5, 2025
If you're lucky enough to have a garden as part of your business, taking some time to set it up for summer is a great investment of your energy. Not only will it be ready for your customers to spend time in, but you can also incorporate some eco-friendly elements into it. Many people just think about the property and what eco-friendly updates they can make , but there are plenty that you can implement in your garden. This gives you the best of both worlds. You own a sacred and beautiful place for your customers to spend their summer, and at the same time, you can do your part for a better planet. If this is the route you want to take, then you also need to consider how to do this with the different seasons. To help you on your journey, here are some top tips for preparing your garden for summer. Plant trees and flowers Planting trees and flowers in your garden is a must. It will make a beautiful scene of nature for everyone to enjoy. Trees will provide people and animals with shade, as well as provide a habitat for wildlife. More trees are needed in the world because they purify the air that we breathe. Flowers, especially if you plant with pollinators in mind, can be an excellent way to attract bees and butterflies, which contribute largely to the earth. Use natural pest control When preparing your garden for summer, you can do this more sustainably and kindly by using natural pest control. Simply by planting trees and flowers, you are likely to attract lots of different wildlife, some of which may destroy your efforts. While all wildlife should be considered, you may need to take measures. Some better and more eco-friendly ways you can do this, as opposed to spraying toxic chemicals onto your plants and into the air, you can implement companion planting, using protective nets over your crops, choosing resilient plants, using natural repellents, and encouraging natural predators so nature can do its thing. Maintain your garden Maintaining your garden in itself can make it more eco-friendly. Composting your garden waste regularly, and kitchen waste can help you to reduce overall waste and create nutrient-rich soil. This is a great cycle of sustainability. You can also keep on top of things that need cleaning and replacing, so you can recycle the materials for other garden structures and projects, and repurpose things around your garden before they become waste. If you have features in your garden like a swimming pool, then a regular pool maintenance service is going to be vital in keeping your water consumption to a minimum, as when it is cleaned and maintained, it will need to be drained and refilled less as well as using less energy. You could also consider how you can use natural purification methods to reduce chemical usage and support biodiversity right in your backyard. Your garden is just an eco-friendly project waiting to be built. Use these top tips to help you get started.