The European Commission found that more than half of environmental claims made in product advertising are misleading, unverified, or unclear – how can we stop greenwashing?
As consumers become more attuned to sustainability matters, revelations like this allow some claims to be seen as what they are – flagrant greenwashing. It’s clear that this is a pervasive problem across all sectors, so what can be done to mitigate it?
Firstly, what is greenwashing? Greenwashing is when a company spends money on marketing itself as being sustainable rather than minimising its environmental impact.
The EU Commission’s solution to stop greenwashing
The EU Commission’s proposal is not yet final, but recent drafts have outlined the need for a standardised framework against which businesses’ environmental impact and sustainability claims can be assessed. This is designed to provide the means to prove (or disprove) claims.
We all know that many businesses tell us what they know we want to hear – whether that’s ‘sustainably produced’, ‘made from recycled materials’, ‘not tested on animals’, ‘preservative-free’… the list goes on. They can do this because at present, there is no robust legislation forcing them to qualify their claims and break down how and why they are able to make them.
At present, there is no robust legislation forcing companies to qualify their claims
While some may deliberately twist or otherwise misrepresent their data with the intention of misleading consumers, it’s important to note that this isn’t always intentional. Without a framework, it’s not only difficult for consumers to understand the sustainability of a product, but it’s also harder for companies to measure it.
Introducing a standardised framework will enable companies to create goals and targets and measure their progress accordingly. It will also ensure they account for their entire supply chain in any claims they make. Fundamentally, everything comes down to knowledge.
Informing consumer choice about greenwashed products
According to the latest insights from the Office for National Statistics, 85% of UK adults believe that the way people treat the environment has an impact on climate change. This is a clear indication that almost everyone is not only aware of the need for sustainability – whether that’s in the form of reducing carbon emissions, minimising the use of fossil fuels, making a conscious effort to stop greenwashing, or seeking recyclable alternatives to everyday items – but that they are also actively concerned about the role they play in tackling climate change.
For many consumers, this translates into a concerted effort to make sustainable choices. For most people, this will concern their shopping habits, such as preferring to buy from companies that use sustainable packaging. However, this is the tip of the iceberg. Many unsustainable practices are beyond the consumer’s sight. For example, some pension funds invest in fossil fuels, but few consumers investigate their pension scheme to this level.
Therefore, it’s hard for even those with the best intentions to conduct the in-depth research required to make truly sustainable choices and stop greenwashing, especially at the point of purchase. And it isn’t reasonable to expect them to do so.
Consumers do the best they can with the information available to them, so purchasing decisions are strongly influenced by advertising and packaging. Consumers aren’t at fault if they read ‘contains recycled materials’ and conclude they are supporting a sustainable company, however, if the company is actually misrepresenting their credentials by not clarifying that only 10% of the material is recycled then the consumer is being misled. On top of this challenge, consumers are facing a cost-of-living crisis that’s leaving them with less disposable income. There is a perception that sustainable products are more expensive, so as consumers seek to reduce their spending, they can also become less concerned with seeking out sustainable options. But sustainability shouldn’t have an income threshold.
Standardisation is key to sustainable choice
Currently, consumers bear the responsibility for making sustainable choices because, with so many companies publishing unreliable claims, it’s usually up to consumers to do their own digging. This needs to shift to businesses, and the way to achieve it is with standardisation.
We need something similar for measuring and representing sustainability
This form of a framework already works well for regulating how the food industry represents nutritional information: all food products show percentages and a colour scale on the front of the packaging illustrates what proportion of a person’s daily allowance it contains. This system was designed to help people make fast decisions and remove the possibility of misrepresenting food products as low-sugar, for example, when they are not. We need something similar for measuring and representing sustainability, as it would enable consumers to base their purchasing decisions on accurate and easily accessible information at the point of sale. An additional benefit would be that sustainability then becomes the default rather than a luxury, built into all products for sale, at every price point.
While the rules have not been announced yet, the European Commission’s progress in this area is a welcome and much-needed change. Along with standardising advertising claims, and the UK government’s Green Claims Code, it will introduce a host of requirements to prove other sustainability initiatives, such as verifying carbon offsetting claims, and facilitate consumers’ willingness to adapt their buying habits in support of the environment.
Lucy Klinkenberg-Matthews, Head of ESG at Paragon Customer Communications
