Concern for broad social welfare and environmental stewardship is faked in order to promote a business's reputation.

Social and environmental initiatives may be undertaken when - and only to the extent required - , , but actions undertaken may or may not be real. (A business could percieve a public relations benefit in claiming to be a green workplace, implement a recycling program and then If money can be made from saving the planet,

Theoretically, the acts of an insincere business may be indistinguishable from those of another truly motivated by social and environmental concerns. The difference is the reason the initiatives are undertaken. In practice, social and environmental initiaves undertaken by greenwashers are usually superficial; more money is spent to promote the initiaves than to support them.

It’s difficult to peer into the soul of a corporation or it’s directors and determine whether concern for broad society or the natural world is is sincere. Numerous websites—with various degrees of aggressiveness—attempt to unveil greenwashers. They include:
stopgreenwash.org
greenwashingindex.com
sinsofgreenwashing.org

Here is a consulting firm that boasts of its greenwashing PR campaigns:
www.greenwashersconsulting.com