Analisi critica delle possibili tecniche di greenwashing nella moderna comunicazione d'impresa. I casi di Nestlé, Unilever e Shell.

The recent developments of modern societies and the growing attention paid to nature and the environment has given great popularity to topics related to sustainability. It has nowadays become commonly known that decades of unethical and environmentally neglectful behaviour have been deeply damaging to our planet. However, since many of the activities that threaten the environment come from multinational corporations, there have also been increasing pressures for companies to be more careful about the ways in which their activities may impact the environment and to communicate how they are being more conscious towards the environment in a clearer way. Many companies have begun working hard in order to find solutions and alternatives and to limit their environmental footprint. To show their consumers how they are planning to achieve this goal, many corporations have introduced special sections on their websites dedicated to sustainability, in which they illustrate what their sustainability goals and their achievements are, so as to find a means of communication with their consumers and to perhaps give them a sense of reliability, in order to stay competitive on the market. It is from this social context that the present study originates. Starting from texts collected from the sustainability sections of the websites of three major companies (Nestlé, Unilever and Shell), a corpus analysis will be carried out in order to critically analyse how these texts are placed in the social context in which they are produced, and which communicative strategies are employed. On the one hand, the discussion concerns the study of the strategic expressions and tokens which most frequently occur in the texts, categorised into two main topics: the environment and sustainability. On the other, the study also focuses on the way in which concessive constructions are employed by the companies in order to strategically highlight specific parts of sentences and perhaps as a defence mechanism against possible greenwashing accusations. What is suggested by the investigation of the communicative strategies employed by Nestlé, Unilever and Shell is summarised by the following considerations. On the one hand, the companies attempt to persuade consumers and stakeholders regarding their policies and initiatives towards the environment and to support sustainability goals. In particular, the extensive use of pronouns such as “we” and “our” highlight their subjectivity and active role in developing sustainability initiatives. Moreover, it is also important to mention the several references to elements of nature and of the environment, as well as references to initiatives, policies, and activities that the companies have developed. The analysis therefore suggests that sustainability, the environment, and the companies are deeply connected. On the other hand, the analysis of concessive constructions proposed that such structures are employed by the companies as a way to justify their actions or perhaps defend themselves against future possible accusations of unethical behaviours. Therefore, Nestlé, Unilever and Shell aim to give to their consumers an image of reliability, showing how they are aware of the problems that are affecting our planet in terms of sustainability. However, it is also suggested that they employ such techniques as an attempt to influence their audiences by strategically employing specific terms and particular concessive constructions.