Green claims without the greenwashing charge

Environmental claims have moved from a reputational risk to a legal one. Enforcement has increased sharply and legislation is tightening across Europe.

The direction of the rules

European consumer protection law is being amended to prohibit generic environmental claims without demonstrated excellent performance, to prohibit claims about a whole product based on one attribute, and to restrict claims of climate neutrality based on offsetting.

Sustainability labels not based on a certification scheme or established by public authorities are also being restricted.

Claims that are now high risk

The sixth row catches many businesses: advertising the absence of a substance that is already banned, or compliance with a mandatory requirement, is treated as misleading because it implies an advantage that does not exist.

What remains safe

A specific claim, about a specific attribute, with the method and boundary stated, supported by evidence available on request.

Examples of the safe form: "packaging contains 82 per cent recycled material by weight", "manufactured at our site using electricity from a certified renewable tariff since 2024", "this model uses 31 per cent less energy than the model it replaces, measured under standard X".

Each names what, how much, measured how, and against what.

Substantiation

Hold the evidence before publishing, not when challenged. It must cover the specific claim, be current, and account for the whole lifecycle where the claim implies it.

A claim about the product implies the product. A claim about the company implies the company. Substantiating one and claiming the other is a common failure.

Offsetting

Claims of neutrality achieved through offsetting have been challenged successfully in several jurisdictions and are the subject of specific legislative restriction.

The safer formulation describes what was actually done: emissions measured, reductions achieved, and separately, offsets purchased, with the scheme named. That is accurate and does not claim an overall neutrality that cannot be substantiated.

The internal control

One person responsible for approving environmental claims, a written substantiation file per claim, and an annual review of everything published.

Old claims on old pages are the most common source of exposure, because they were made under a different regulatory understanding and nobody removed them.