Brands making green claims about their products need clarity on what they can and cannot say. The recent surge in green marketing has left many brands searching for the right words to sell the environmental benefits of products.
Ethical Corporation, 1 September 2008 -
Brands making green claims about their products need clarity on what they can and cannot say.
The recent surge in green marketing has left many brands searching for
the right words to sell the environmental benefits of products.
But many advertisers still slip up by using vague terms that leave
themselves open to charges of greenwash, as oil firm Shell has found to
its cost.
In August, the UK's Advertising Standards Authority ruled that Shell
had misled the public by branding its Canadian oil sands operation
“sustainable†in an ad in the Financial Times in February.
The watchdog ruled that “sustainableâ€, in the context Shell had used
it, was “an ambiguous and unclear termâ€. It upheld a complaint about
the ad from green campaigner WWF. The group promptly launched its own
campaign accusing Shell of greenwash.
Green marketing terms remain ill-defined, and no successful attempt
has yet been made to codify what advertisers can or cannot say when
trying to promote goods with environmental benefits.
“Low carbon†is one term that the ad industry has yet to pin down. UK
advertising codes fail to make clear whether the claim that a product
is low carbon applies to its carbon dioxide emissions when used by the
consumer, or across its whole life-cycle.
Defining precisely what is acceptable for green marketers to say is
“work in progressâ€, says ASA chairman Lord Smith. He admits that
“consumers are confused†by the mass of widely differing claims made by
companies about their green credentials.
At present, terms such as “zero carbon†and “carbon neutral†are
defined through case law. As the ASA deals with more greenwash
complaints – the tally rose from 117 in 2006 to 561 last year – these
definitions are refined.
The UK Committee on Advertising Practice, the industry body that writes
advertising guidelines for marketers, has no plans to create a single
code of practice for green marketing. All codes are under review and
changes will be proposed in the autumn, it says.
But help for confused copywriters could soon be on its way. The UK
Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is talking with the
advertising industry and NGOs about updating its Green Claims Code – a
set of guidelines for marketers that was last revised in 2000. An
announcement is expected “in a few monthsâ€, says the department.
A Defra spokesman adds: “The advertising industry is very keen on [the
revised code]. If they want to make green claims, they want to be able
to make sure that they are legitimate.†A view with which Shell, no
doubt, would agree.