Greenwashing is the practice of making “people believe that your company is doing more to protect the environment than it really is, in an attempt to make your business seem interested in protecting the natural environment.” Cambridge Dictionary.
And it comes in many formats: claims without evidence, vague claims, token gestures, green imagery, buzzwords, and irrelevant claims to name but a few!
The European Commission continues to report that 53.3% of environmental claims in the EU are vague, misleading or unfounded, while 40% lack supporting evidence. These findings have underpinned the EU’s crackdown on greenwashing [European Commission study, 2020].
Whether intentional or not GREENWASHING is GREENWASHING and it has impact. It erodes trust in the system, keeps market share away from those who are genuinely engaged in responsible practices, delays real change and diminishes urgency!
Two pieces of legislation are leading to a MASSIVE clamp down on greenwashing:
- Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024
- ‘Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive 2024/825’ applicable from September 2026
This can affect even the most careful of businesses. Things that you might get away with in the past are now specifically legislated against. So its important to know what you can and can’t say. The legislation, as ever, isn’t exactly user friendly. So if you’d like a shortcut to better, compliant sustainability coms. then download a free copy of our Confident Green Claims card.
If you are looking for more support, we do offer a 1hr interactive training session for in-house product and marketing teams to get them up to speed on what they can and can’t say. We also to run through the sorts of data that you need to collect to be able make confident, substantiated claims in your marketing materials. A great example of good practice in this space, is the work that Norcros reported on in their recent sustainability report about the work that Triton Showers have been engaged in.
If you’d like more information about the training that we offer in this area click here. AND – if you do end up having in us in to support your team with training then you will also get a set of the ‘Confident Green Claims’ cards to stick on you wall.
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