Few areas of ad regulation get advertisers as hot and bothered as making sure they’re keeping it clean when it comes to environmental and sustainability claims. After all, being beaten with the greenwashing stick is a fate nobody wants. So, here’s a quick overview of some of the key areas to focus on when making environmental and sustainability claims and details of some recent rulings that focus on this area.
Clearly a greener choice? Make clear the basis of claims
You will need to be clear about what your environmental claims are based on. If the claim isn’t immediately obvious, you’ll likely need to give consumers information that explains this. General statements like “GOOD FOR THE PLANET” are almost certainly going to be a problem for the ad regulators, without additional information.
Where industries may have a significant environmental footprint both directly (e.g. energy sector) or indirectly through businesses they support (e.g. banking), it’s important that ads don’t simply look at the positives and gloss over the negatives. For example, the ASA has investigated whether ads have misled by omitting material information about the overall environmental impact of both an energy business and bank.
Where ads provide suitable balancing information about the extent of their high carbon emitting activities or put environmental and sustainability claims in context against the backdrop of their wider business activities, there will be less risk of an unfavourable ASA ruling.
What on Earth do you mean?! Be clear on the meaning of all terms
Although the average consumer is assumed to be reasonably well-informed, observant and circumspect you can’t take them to be encyclopaedias of all things sustainable. Discovering “sustainable trips” is a worthy endeavour but if it’s not clear to consumers what this means (i.e. how can a holiday, or your toothbrush, be ‘sustainable’?), you’ll still end up in hot water.
We’re dead serious - make sure you can substantiate claims
Being able to support claims with appropriate evidence before publication is a cornerstone of the ad regulatory system. And it’s no different when it comes to claims about the environment and sustainability. So if you haven’t got the evidence to show that your coffin is made from 100% recycled cardboard, it will be the death knell for your ad campaign.
Circle of life, cradle to grave. Take into consideration the full lifecycle
Talking of substantiation when making environmental claims: you’ll need to have robust full lifecycle analysis to support the claim you want to make. And if you’re making general ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘sustainable claims’, this analysis will need to show that from manufacture to disposal the product or service has no detrimental impact on the environment. So, if you haven’t got this kind of evidence, you’d best scoot along.
Robust analysis will also be needed for any green disposal claims, which prove to be a continual source of new rulings. These have included claims relating to ‘plastic free’ and ‘biodegradable’ cleaning products; ‘compostable’ coffee capsules and bags or ‘recyclable’ synthetic grass.
All these rulings serve to emphasise that advertisers need to make sure that what they say tallies with what consumers are likely to take away from an ad. And if you’re ever unsure, the CAP Copy Advice Team are always on hand, like your very own Captain Planet to help ensure your ads clean up on the compliance front.
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