THE“green” is increasingly popular in Italy. The market for sustainable products in Italy is increasing year after year, demonstrating an ever-increasing attention by Italian consumers to environmental issues. What ruins this good news, however, is that it still happens too often the labels of these products are not clear and what is written there is not true.
Green products that are not too green
To stop all this and promote transparency in the marketing of this specific marketthe YES BUTthe Italian Society of Environmental Medicine, has approved L’agreement between the European Parliament and the Council of the EU on the directive against misleading environmental claims, so-called greenwashing. The provision will prohibit companies from using indications such as “ecological”, “natural”, “biodegradable”, “climate neutral” or “eco”if not proven by scientific evidence.
The European Union says stop false labels on sustainable products (Getty)
Stop misleading labels
“According to Sustainability Report 2023 by NielsenIQ, around 86% of families today focus on consumer goods defined as sustainable based on the information on the packaging. A market share that only in 2023 it is worth an impressive 14.5 billion euros in Italygrowing by +3.2% over the two-year period 2021-2022″ explains SIMA president, Alessandro Miani.
«In the face of this flourishing market, however, a recent research conducted by the European Commission has highlighted how today 53.3% of environmental claims reported on the packaging of products marketed in the EU is vague and misleading. And how, moreover, 40% of “green” indications are unproven, i.e. the promised environmental characteristics are not demonstrated” he adds.
The negative impact of fake environmental claims
However, fake environmental claims have negative effects not only on consumers and the market, but also on the environment. A fake ecological productIndeed, has an inevitable environmental impact negative in terms of polluting emissions.
«For this reason we believe – concludes Miani – that the new bans studied by the EU should be extended to all sectors that deal with the concept of sustainability. Why everything presented as ecological or sustainable must be scientifically demonstrable, verifiable and validated by official public bodies recognized at an international level. And the real positive impact on the environment must be expressly indicated on the label. This too to protect the best Made in Italy and organic agriculture which in Italy represents 17.4% of the used agricultural area, compared to the 9.9% of the EU average”.
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