Corporate Greenwashing and Canada Goose: Exploring the Legitimacy–Aesthetic Nexus
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University of Regina
Canada
Abstract
Public discourse on environmental responsibility and sustainability continues to pressure corporations, especially those that have been portrayed as key contributors of environmental harm. Greenwashing is a strategy that companies adopt to engage in symbolic communications with environmental issues without substantially addressing them in actions. This paper aims to raise awareness of corporate greenwashing, drawing attention to issues that progress the trend of individualized responsibility and consumption, while concealing the social and (eco)systemic issues in the process. By drawing on the case study of winter apparel company Canada Goose, this paper questions whether businesses can ‘go green’ in good faith, if corporate responsibility and environmental responsibility can ever be reconciled, and if there is considerable need to clarify the intended effects and unintended consequences of corporate greenwashing.
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Author Biography
James Gacek, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Justice Studies at the University of Regina, Canada. He holds his PhD in Criminology from Edinburgh Law School at the University of Edinburgh. Drawing upon criminology and carceral geography, his PhD project focused upon the regulation of inmates through law, state surveillance and community corrections in the UK. He recently completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Department of Sociology at Memorial University of Newfoundland, and has lectured in criminology and criminal justice at the University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg. He continues to extensively publish in sociological and criminological reviews, journals and international fora. While his research interests are many, he broadly conceives his research into three categories: (1) corrections and community justice; (2) green criminology; and (3) the law-society nexus. With Richard Jochelson, he has co-authored Criminal Law and Precrime: Legal Studies in Canadian Punishment and Surveillance in Anticipation of Criminal Guilt (Routledge, 2018) and co-edited Sexual Regulation and the Law – A Canadian Perspective (Demeter Press, 2019). His experience in developing applications has successfully received grant monies and research funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Manitoba Research Alliance, the University of Manitoba and the University of Edinburgh. Currently he serves as Research Associate for the Canadian Institute of Public Safety and Treatment, and are one of the co-investigators on an expansive, longitudinal study engaged with Correctional Services Canada.