Low-carbon building : bâtiment à faible émission de carbone

concrete : béton

manufacturing : fabrication

Greenwashing : écoblanchiment

--> stratégie marketing utilisée par une entreprise ou toute autre organisation pour verdir son image, en donnant l’impression qu’un produit ou un service est respectueux de l’environnement alors que ce n’est pas le cas.

Mental health = Santé mentale

Green spaces = Espaces verts

Natural lighting = Lumière naturelle

Workplace environment = Environnement de travail

INTRODUCTION

I will explain how I searched for information, how I selected and organised my sources, and how I designed my communication tool to answer my research question.

My research question is:
“Is Corporate Social Responsibility a real tool for changing business practices or a symbolic device that promotes greenwashing strategies?”

The objective of my work was not to take a radical position, but rather to question CSR and to analyse under which conditions it can lead to real change, and under which conditions it may become closer to greenwashing. Also, the idea was to contribute to education and awareness on this topic.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

I adopted a structured research methodology based on a corpus of ten documents: five in English and five in French.

All the sources were gathered, organised and annotated using Zotero.
This tool allowed me to manage references efficiently, classify documents by language, and add personal notes to each source.

ENGLISH SOURCES

For the English corpus, I focused on recent academic articles published after 2020.

I used Google Scholar to ensure the scientific credibility of the sources.

The keywords used were:
“Corporate Social Responsibility”, “Greenwashing”, and “Sustainability”.

These articles helped me define key concepts, understand the mechanisms of greenwashing and the CSR approaches. The goal was to explore the links between those two concepts.

FRENCH SOURCES

The French sources were selected to complement the academic approach with more concrete and applied perspectives.

They include academic articles, press articles, student theses and professional feedback from a CSR Officer.

These documents allowed me to analyse how CSR is implemented and communicated in real organisations, and how certain practices can be perceived either as genuine engagement or as symbolic actions.

COMMUNICATION METHODOLOGY

To communicate my results, I created an educational poster.

The target audience is future decision-makers, such as students in management or future business leaders.

The objective of this poster is not to provide ready-made answers, but to help the audience question CSR practices and better understand the difference between credible CSR and potential greenwashing.

I chose to create an informative and visual poster.

This format was selected because it is easy to read, fast to understand, and suitable for a non-expert audience.

The poster is structured into several clear sections, moving from definitions to questions and then to possible solutions.

In terms of design, I used simple colours and icons to guide reading and make complex ideas more accessible.

Such as a megaphone in warning colours; used to highlight the risks of greenwashing

The poster starts with a key question:
“CSR: Real change or greenwashing?”

It then explains what CSR is and shows that CSR is neither automatically good nor automatically bad.

A central part of the poster invites the audience to ask critical questions, such as whether actions are aligned with the company’s core activities, whether impacts are measured, and whether communication is transparent.

At the third part, the poster presents examples of more credible CSR practices, inspired by the French and English sources, such as employee involvement, long-term strategies and responsible communication.

Finally, the key message at the bottom of the poster

One of the main challenges was avoiding an oversimplified message.

CSR is a complex concept that depends on context, and its impact varies a lot.

The solution was not to give a simple “yes” or “no” answer.

Instead, the poster highlights contrasts and conditions, showing that CSR can be a real tool for change under certain conditions, but may resemble greenwashing under others.

This approach allows the audience to understand the complexity of CSR without being confused.

The poster was designed as an educational and training tool.

It encourages future decision-makers to reflect on their responsibilities and to adopt a more informed and critical approach to CSR.

Rather than blaming companies, the poster focuses on learning, awareness and improvement.

DIFFICULTIES

One of the main challenges of this work was maintaining a balanced and nuanced perspective.

I wanted to avoid both idealising CSR and systematically associating it with greenwashing.

To do so, I looked for diverse sources that dealt with the subject in different ways.

Another difficulty was simplifying complex concepts without losing their meaning, which required careful reformulation.

CONCLUSION

To conclude, my methodology allowed me to question CSR in a structured and balanced way.

By combining academic research, applied French sources and an educational communication tool, I aimed to show that CSR can be a real lever for change under certain conditions.

When these conditions are not met, CSR risks becoming symbolic and closer to greenwashing.