New guidance on green claims will help companies know where they stand. By David Burrows
Businesses should not fear making sustainability claims so long as they are clear, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said as it published new guidance on the topic.
With greenwashing on the rise and several high profile rulings recently, the authority’s intervention is timely.
The latest guidance includes a section focused specifically on making environmental claims. These must be “clear” and “sufficiently contextualised”.
“Be realistic and talk transparently about your sustainability journey and where you are along it,” ASA said. “Be precise, clear, balanced, honest and accurate in your ads.”
Food businesses should take particular note of the following: “Where businesses are responsible for a significant amount of harmful emissions or other environmental harm, ads which reference specific environmentally beneficial initiatives are more likely to mislead if they do not include balancing information about the business’s significant ongoing contribution to emissions or other environmental harm. This is particularly the case in sectors where consumers are less likely to be aware of the business’s contribution to emissions or other environmental harm.”
The ASA cites the example of the financial sector’s contribution to funding high-carbon industries, but the food industry should be similarly wary. Consumer understanding of the impact of food in relation to both the climate and nature crises is mixed. Many companies are also yet to measure their full emissions footprint, for example; or as Tortoise’s Better Food Index recently showed they currently only divulge scope 1 and 2 emissions, ignoring their far greater scope 3. Others have already been caught out by the ASA for misleading green claims – Tesco and Oatly among them.
Regulatory risk
McDonald’s and Burger King were among dozens of food companies recently accused of greenwashing in a new study by the Changing Markets Foundation.
The NGO assessed dozens of claims made by food and drink companies against the green claims code – which was published in 2021 by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to help companies avoid making misleading environmental claims.
Both the ASA and CMA have been taking a firm approach to tackling misleading green claims. Sectors like food, fashion, energy and waste are all in the crosshairs given their large environmental footprints.
But there are signs that this intense scrutiny – as well as tighter rules being proposed in the EU – is leading to companies going quiet on sustainability. Some feel this could have a knock-on impact for transparent reporting, and even prevent companies taking action.
Writing for Footprint recently, lawyers from DWF explained: “The result of all this regulation should be less greenwashing. Whether it will also put the brakes on brands making any green claims at all – and what that means for progress on sustainability and shifting consumer buying patterns – remains to be seen.”
The ASA said companies shouldn’t need to choose between greenwashing or greenhushing. Those with a high carbon footprint but who are on a credible pathway to net-zero or working towards other ambitious plans to shift the balance of their activities should “be reassured [… that] we are not going to ban your claims about those ambitions in ads so long as they tell a balanced story”.
Lawyers have been unpicking recent rulings. Rob Biddlecombe, partner at Brabners, said there could be “fine margins” that distinguish an advertisement that doesn’t breach the advertising codes from one that does.
DWF partner Dominic Watkins said two recent rulings relating to water companies “do leave a question over what is or is not going to be considered by the regulator” when weighing up complaints about misleading claims. “Time and time again we are seeing the ASA pulling up companies because of the wider the context in which the green claim is being made; this has not yet focussed on carbon neutrality, but it is just a matter of time,” said Watkins.
Carbon neutral
Footprint has been reporting how companies are already creeping away from carbon neutral and the use of offsetting. Fast food chain Leon has quietly started phasing out carbon neutral messaging across its channels, while WSH is reviewing its carbon neutral coffee proposition. Sodexo meanwhile is reviewing its 2025 carbon neutral target “in light of the challenges posed by the carbon offset market around validity, permanence and whether it feels the right approach”.
There are those that continue to support carbon neutral because it can force companies to measure their emissions and track them.
