Sustainability consultancy Oakdene Hollins’ director, Simon Scholes, highlights the ease with which companies can fall into the greenwashing trap, and what to look for to avoid them
Sustainability has become one of the most misunderstood buzz words of our times. As a ‘cover all’ for everything from carbon emissions to End of Life (EoL) recycling, its context has caused many companies to fall into the trap of ‘greenwashing’ – making green claims that don’t actually stand up to verifiable scrutiny.
As well as risking coming under the probing eyes of the ASA Advertising Standards Authority, there are also regulatory initiatives such as the UK Green Claims Code, and the European Green Claims Directive, set up in direct response to the increasing prevalence of greenwashing across industry sectors. These initiatives exist not as a punitive measure, but to help encourage and nudge organisations towards a more level playing field when it comes to incorporating sustainability claims into overall marketing messaging.
Greenwashing is often unintentional. Companies invest time and money to increase sustainability in their products and operations and, understandably, want to take credit for it. The problem arises when claims are not specific enough, tell just part of the story or lack robust data to demonstrate the claimed benefits of products or processes.
The checklist below highlights the key areas you need to consider when assessing the robustness of your green claims.
Are your claims truthful and accurate, avoiding any misleading impressions, and presented in a way that is transparent and straightforward for consumers to understand?
When making claims, have you considered the entire life cycle of the product or service, from initial design through to end of life? Cherry picking information or focusing only on certain aspects while neglecting others may lead to misrepresentation.
Have you substantiated your environmental claims by using tools such as Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and carbon accounting for core insight into your overall processes?
Is the supporting evidence for your claims publicly available and easily accessible for consumers? Documentation should prominently disclose any relevant information, condition or limitations.
If making comparative claims – whether about your product is better than before or better than your competitors – are you considering equivalent assessment methodologies, environmental attributes, and lifecycle stages?
Do you scrutinise the green claims of raw materials and component suppliers to ensure their own systems are compliant with industry wide sustainability regulations, backed by verifiable data?
Have your claims been independently verified or certified by an accredited third party?
The surest road to remain green claims compliant is to be very specific, consider the full product lifecycle when claiming environmental benefits and making statements with objective facts obtained from widely accepted methodologies such as the GHG protocol or solid LCAs.
Oakdene Hollins has worked extensively in the furniture industry, both with individual companies and trade associations, to create a growing collaborative approach which will make compliance increasingly accessible for all.
At Oakdene Hollins, we are a sustainability consultancy championing the circular economy as a key solution to the climate and biodiversity crises. We help businesses create net-zero strategies and adopt circular practices that reduce environmental impact while boosting competitiveness through resource optimisation, circular design and value retention.
