Any green advertisement must be proven and based on reality
First measures to combat the ‘greenwashing‘ or green face wash practiced by many companiesboth large and small, to appear ecological qualities that in reality they do not have. The European Commission has just presented a legislative proposal that aims to put an end to ‘ecopostureo’ in the confusing, vague or false labeling of some products that show seals with supposed environmental certifications, but that are not supported by scientific and transparent criteria.
“We all want to do everything possible to limit the impacts of our consumption choices on the environment, but it is not easy to be ecological,” lamented the European Commissioner for the Environment, Virginijus Sinkevicius, at a press conference.
The European Commission has identified 230 different “eco-labels” in the EU, which present environmental characteristics of products and its detailed analysis shows that 53.3% of these alleged properties are vague, confusing or unfounded and that 40% contain statements with no reliable basis to support them.
These are statements such as “made with 30% recycled plastic”, “committed to reducing our CO2 emissions” or “bee-friendly juice”.
To correct this trend, the Community Executive want to apply more control and transparency to those labels that some manufacturers use voluntarily to promote their products.
The goal is to “protect consumers, but also protect businesses” who are hurt by competing companies using dubious environmental slogans.indicate community sources.
For this reason, and only with regard to the voluntary declarations of certain properties, without including any new mandatory labeling system, Brussels proposes to introduce common rules.
For example, no product will be allowed to show an “aggregate score” of different environmental criteriabecause sharpness is lost in the real photograph.
In addition, if some products are compared with others based on their environmental performance, it will be mandatory that they be supported by “equivalent information and data”.
Bring order to the current tide of green labels
To avoid the proliferation of labels, beyond the 230 that already exist, new public systems will not be allowed at the national level unless they demonstrate that they provide “added value” at the domestic level with respect to a standard harmonized at the European level.
The European Commission makes itself available to the Member States to develop European standards, if the Twenty-seven so request.
“Any new private schemes will need to show greater environmental ambition than existing ones and get prior approval to be allowed,” adds the Commission in its proposal.
In any case, environmental label schemes will have to be “reliable, transparent, independently verified and regularly reviewed”adds the European Commission, and consumer defense organizations will be empowered to take legal action against those manufacturers who do not respect these labeling rules.
“We do not ban any of the existing schemes,” European sources qualify, explaining that the directive does seek to shed light on which companies place these labels on the market, what criteria they follow and whether they are based on solid and scientific data.
“Green claims are everywhere: ocean-friendly t-shirts, zero-carbon bananas, bee-friendly juices… Unfortunately, cToo often these claims are made without evidence or justification.”regretted in a statement the vice president of the European Commission for the Green Deal, Frans Timmermans.
The proposed new regulation, which will have to be negotiated with the European Parliament and Member States, builds on the Consumer Rights Directive that the Commission presented last year, with obligations for manufacturers to prevent products from containing misleading information about the social or environmental impact of the product.
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Contact of the Environment section: [email protected]