Communicating about sustainability, would you dare?

With the recent implementation of the ECGT (EU Empowering Consumers to Green Transition Directive), companies are under increased pressure to back up the green claims they make. In theory that is a good thing of course, but it can also become a barrier for scaling up positive impact initiatives. Companies are hesitant to communicate about sustainability (the effect of ‘green hushing’) and sometimes refrain from doing so at all. To avoid that, it is important to know and play by the rules, even though they are sometimes difficult to understand and implement.

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In our webinar ‘How to make Honest & Effective Impact’, on the 9th of July, Jellien Roelofs gave a short lecture on the basics of communicating about sustainability. Jellien is a lawyer, Green Claims Consultant & Anti-greenwashing expert at Lasting Legal. In this blog, we highlight some very interesting details to get you up to speed about the current rules: 

Sustainability becomes more and more important for consumers

A 2022 study shows that 89% of consumers have become ‘greener’ in their purchasing, and 66% of consumers rank sustainability as one of the top five drivers behind a purchase decision.

However, consumers don’t really trust sustainability communication, and that makes absolute sense:

Research by the European Commission on the use of sustainability claims shows that 53% of the green claims give vague, misleading, or unfounded information. And even 40% of all claims have no supporting evidence at all.

So, how do you back up your green claims? How do you make sure they are not vague or misleading? How do you play by the rules? 

Rules of thumb

Let’s start with a few rules of thumb, brought to us by the (Dutch) Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) in their Guidelines regarding Sustainability Claims.

1. Use correct, clear, specific, and complete sustainability claims. 

If your product is made of a recycled material, name the actual material ánd the percentage used. 

2. Substantiate your sustainability claims with facts, and keep them up-to-date

Have the explanation and the proof on what you actually mean by your claim.

3. Make fair comparisons with other products or competitors

If you compare the latest model of your product with a competitor’s model, compare it with the latest model of your competitor as well. 

4. Describe your future sustainability ambitions in concrete and verifiable terms

You can communicate about your sustainability ambitions, as long as you make very clear that it is an ambition, and not a given.

5. Make sure that visual claims and labels are useful to consumers, not confusing

Visual claims, like a photo or even a small green leaf, must support your claim, and they cannot give a false impression of your product’s characteristics

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Examples and more details on these rules of thumb can be found in the guidelines.

3 additional tips from Jellien:

1. Make sure your claim is ‘complete’, meaning it has the three layers of a comprehensive sustainability claim: the claim, the explanation and the proof. Keep in mind: If you don’t have the proof, you shouldn’t make the claim.

2. Watch out for ‘generic’ terms. Generic terms are terms that are not specific enough and are quickly misleading. A few examples: eco, environmentally-friendly, green or biodegradable. These claims are used often, but that does not mean they are allowed. Generic terms should be very properly substantiated, and in some cases specification is not even enough to prevent them from being misleading. This holds for terms like conscious and responsible. The ACM have specifically warned for the use of the terms carbon neutral and climate neutral. These might even become prohibited in the near future.

3. A photo, an image of a leaf or the color green for example, can also be considered a sustainability claim and can therefore also be qualified as misleading.

If you want to learn more about sustainability communication, watch the recording of our webinar here, or contact Jellien directly.

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