Greenwashing  ## Metadata - Author: [[Matt]] - Full Title: Greenwashing - Category: #articles - Document Note: --- tags: [open-source, governance, ethics] author: [MISSING] source: ma.tt reference: [https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/] date created: {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}} {{time:HH:mm}} --- # 🏷️ Title: Greenwashing ## 🧭 Table of Contents - [📝 Summary](#-summary) - [📖 Main Content](#-main-content) - [🗒️ Notes](#️-notes) - [📚 References](#-references) - [🗣️ Paraphrase](#️-paraphrase) - [📰 Newsletter](#-newsletter) - [✅ Action Items](#-action-items) - [🧪 Hypotheses](#-hypotheses) - [📊 Methodology](#-methodology) - [❓ Questions](#-questions) - [🔮 Future Research](#-future-research) - [💡 Implications](#-implications) - [🧠 Learning Styles Assessment](#-learning-styles-assessment) - [📊 Accessibility Assessment](#-accessibility-assessment) - [🌍 DEIB Assessment](#-deib-assessment) - [✅ Logical Validity](#-logical-validity) - [🛡️ DARVO Analysis](#-darvo-analysis) - [🎯 Conclusion](#-conclusion) ### 🔗 References - Include links cited in or relevant to the article. ## 📝 Summary - The post contrasts Patagonia’s stewardship with “greenwashing.” - It maps UN-style greenwashing tactics to open source “openwashing.” - Stakeholders include WordPress contributors, companies, and users. - Risk: firms buy goodwill while underfunding security and governance. - Bottom line: judge actions portfolio-wide, not isolated sponsorships. ## 📖 Main Content - The author attended a dinner celebrating David Gelles’ new book on Yvon Chouinard. See Dirtbag Billionaire by David Gelles for context: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dirtbag-Billionaire/David-Gelles/9781797224256 - Patagonia’s structure aims at conservation; many firms only signal virtue. - The UN frames greenwashing as vague claims, weak plans, and minimal compliance. See the UN’s definition of greenwashing: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/raising-ambition/renewable-energy/greenwashing - The post applies this to WordPress: firms “frack” OSS by extracting brand value while starving code and security. - The recommendation: evaluate total spend and net impact across actions. ### 🗒️ Notes ### [H1] Patagonia models mission-locked stewardship > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) by [[Matt]] via [[ma.tt]]. Published 2025-10-05. Accessed {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}. > “how Yvon gave away all his equity and control in the company to ensure a focus on his lifelong goal of environmentalism and conservation.” Patagonia’s structure aligns control with mission. It contrasts with PR-first approaches. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #xref #articleseed ID:rw_371591195-H1 ### [H2] UN-style greenwashing patterns recur in tech > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) by [[Matt]] via [[ma.tt]]. Published 2025-10-05. Accessed {{date:YYYY-MM-DD}}. > “Claiming that the company will achieve future environment milestones while not putting sufficient plans in place to do so.” Future claims without plans signal risk. Map to OSS roadmaps lacking investment. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #xref ID:rw_371591195-H2 ### [H3] Vague virtue claims mask weak evidence > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) > “Being intentionally vague about operations or using vague claims that cannot be specifically proven (like saying they are ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘green’).” In OSS, “supporting community” without metrics fits this pattern. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #xref ID:rw_371591195-H3 ### [H4] Highlighting a lone good act distracts > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) > “Highlighting one thing the company does well regarding the environment while not doing anything else.” Single sponsorships can distract from systemic underinvestment. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #xref ID:rw_371591195-H4 ### [H5] Minimum compliance framed as leadership > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) > “Promoting products that meet regulatory minimums as if peer products do not.” In WordPress, meeting baseline policies is not leadership proof. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #xref ID:rw_371591195-H5 ### [H6] “Openwashing” extracts value and weakens code > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) > “our environmental crisis comes from companies that frack the open source software and brands… lack of investment in the code… or… tricking people into thinking they’re associated with the Good Open thing.” Brand parasitism plus security neglect harms the ecosystem. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #articleseed #xref ID:rw_371591195-H6 ### [H7] Evaluate net impact, not isolated sponsorships > [!quote] [Greenwashing](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) > “weigh that against the tens of millions they’re spending with their other hand to destroy the source of everything they’ve benefited from” Assess portfolios and incentives to avoid capture. [view highlight](https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/) #articleseed #share ID:rw_371591195-H7 ## 📚 References - Dirtbag Billionaire by David Gelles (publisher page): https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Dirtbag-Billionaire/David-Gelles/9781797224256 - UN guidance on greenwashing: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/raising-ambition/renewable-energy/greenwashing - Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/29633/let-my-people-go-surfing-by-yvon-chouinard/ ## 🗣️ Paraphrase - Patagonia aligns control with environmental mission using ownership design. - Some WordPress firms signal virtue while underfunding core and security. ## 📰 Newsletter - WordPress friends, watch for “openwashing.” Some firms sponsor events. Yet they underinvest in core and security. Evaluate net impact. Favor transparent budgets, contribution metrics, and long-term maintenance. Read the UN’s take on greenwashing patterns. Apply them to OSS decisions. See UN guidance on greenwashing: https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/raising-ambition/renewable-energy/greenwashing ## ✅ Action Items #### DevRel - Define “real support” metrics for sponsors — contribution hours, patches, CVEs closed. - Publish a sponsor scorecard template — PR vs. engineering inputs. - Add case studies showing net-positive patterns — before/after metrics. #### OSPO - Create an openwashing policy — disclosure, contribution floors, KPIs. - Require SBOM and vuln intake processes for partners. - Report quarterly upstream impact — commits, reviews, funding. #### Community - Run governance clinics on evaluating sponsorship portfolios. - Offer first-issue rotations tied to sponsor commitments. - Publish impact reports for events with sponsor contributions. #### WordPress - Core: track security backlog reduction per sponsor quarter. - Core Performance: define perf budgets and public dashboards. - Core AI: publish responsible AI guardrails and eval sets. - Core Program Team: set rituals for sponsor accountability. - Mobile: track telemetry and crash-free sessions targets. - Playground: add reproducible bug templates and labs. - Community: update WordCamp playbooks for sponsor metrics. - Training: add modules on OSS ethics and greenwashing. - Marketing: avoid vague claims; require evidence links. - Support: publish SLA adherence and escalation stats. - Design: add design tokens and accessibility audits cadence. - Documentation: examples-first patterns; evidence of freshness. - Photos/TV: improve captions and content indexing SLAs. - Polyglots: run translation sprints with measurable goals. - Accessibility: WCAG reviews and heatmaps of issues. - Meta: reliability SLOs for .org APIs and tools. - CLI: expand command coverage and smoke tests. - Hosting: standardize defaults; publish reliability telemetry. - Tide: clarify scoring and false-positive review loops. - Openverse: document ingestion and moderation policies. - Themes/Plugins: improve review throughput and provenance checks. #### The WPCC - Programs: fund maintainer stipends with transparent ledgers. - Projects: governance clinics and documentation sprints. - Funding experiments: matched grants with milestone payouts. ### FAIR - T - Summary: Tonight there was a lovely event at TinkerTendo by Raman Frey and Karin Johnson of Good People Dinners, this one honoring David Gelles’ new book, Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built… - URL: https://ma.tt/2025/10/greenwashing/ Tonight there was a lovely event at [TinkerTendo](https://tinkertendo.com/) by Raman Frey and Karin Johnson of [Good People Dinners](https://www.gpdinners.com/), this one honoring [David Gelles’](https://davidgelles.com/) new book, [Dirtbag Billionaire: How Yvon Chouinard Built Patagonia, Made a Fortune, and Gave It All Away](https://www.amazon.com/Dirtbag-Billionaire-Chouinard-Patagonia-Fortune/dp/1668032260?tag=photomatt08-20). I’m a huge fan of Yvon Chouinard and really enjoyed his book [Let My People Go Surfing](https://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman/dp/1594200726/?tag=photomatt08-20) which I read back in 2018. It was the first time hosting such a large 60-person dinner in the TinkerTendo warehouse, and thanks to [this Copper battery-operated induction stovetop](https://copperhome.com/) and an amazing local chef, [Hanif Sadr](https://www.komaaj.com/), the food turned out amazing. I’ve only started the new book, but I’m interested to see what’s happened in the 20 years between Yvon’s book and David’s, especially the story of [how Yvon gave away all his equity and control in the company](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/patagonia-climate-philanthropy-chouinard.html) to ensure a focus on his lifelong goal of environmentalism and conservation. Patagonia is one of the better corporate entities fighting for good, but it reminded me of how companies can put on a jacket of doing good while actually being evil underneath. Like I talked about the [economic concept of Externalties a few weeks ago](https://ma.tt/2025/09/externalities/), I think it’s imperative that the WordPress community understands the history of [Greenwashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greenwashing), which the [United Nations defines as follows](https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/science/climate-issues/greenwashing): 1. Claiming that the company will achieve future environment milestones while not putting sufficient plans in place to do so. 2. Being intentionally vague about operations or using vague claims that cannot be specifically proven (like saying they are “environmentally friendly” or “green”). 3. Saying that a product does not contain harmful materials or use harmful practices that they would not use anyway. 4. Highlighting one thing the company does well regarding the environment while not doing anything else. 5. Promoting products that meet regulatory minimums as if peer products do not. In [WordPress](https://wordpress.org/) and open source our environmental crisis comes from companies that frack the open source software and brands, which shows up as lack of investment in the code which falls fallow [espescially in the security sense](https://tech.eu/2025/07/25/chronic-underfunding-of-open-source-software-poses-strategic-risk-to-europes-digital-sovereignty/), or by attaching themselves to a brand or trademark and tricking people into thinking they’re associated with the Good Open thing, when they’re really a parasitic cancer on it. This is happening right now in WordPress, so when you see a company hire a good person or sponsor an event that seems on its own a good thing, and probably represents hundreds of thousands of dollars of investment, weigh that against the tens of millions they’re spending with their other hand to destroy the source of everything they’ve benefited from, and if they were to win, endanger every open source project. It’s an open source form of greenwashing, perhaps call it [openwashing](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Openwashing)., Greenwashing, Matt, 01k6t1n8veqqsxfqqc9wdfneff.