The EU Green Claims Directive for Ensuring Transparent and Accountable Green Marketing

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

 

With its new Green Claims Directive, the EU is taking one major step in the fight against greenwashing.  As a result, the new legislation is going to ensure that environmental claims made by companies are reliable, comparable, and verifiable – of great importance to consumers making informed choices on issues of real sustainability.

 

Addressing Greenwashing Directly

Greenwashing is increasingly becoming a problem, where companies give misleading or false information about how ‘green’ their product is.  It was this which the EU attempted to address when it proposed the Green Claims Directive in March of 2023, with the view to its adoption in 2024.  The Directive is part of the European Green Deal and is specifically designed to bring more transparency while contributing to the achievement of the target set regarding the climate by the EU for 2050: to be climate neutral.

The legislature has identified the following key objectives for the Directive:

  • The Better Protection of the Environment: In performing its functions, it shall help in establishing a circular, clean, and climate-neutral economy.
  • The Protection of Consumers and Businesses: Will protect consumers from deceptive claims and give a fair market to companies that offer genuinely green alternatives
  • Enabling Competitiveness: Encourage companies to innovate and further enhance their environmental performance
  • Ensuring Cost Saving: By facilitating free trade of business for sustainable businesses across the EU through harmonizsation of rules across the markets.

 

Substantiated and Transparent Claims

The environmental claims shall be based on clear and transparent criteria and scientific evidence.  This means that the following shall be required:

  • Durability and Recyclability: The claims should be specific, easy to understand and verifiable
  • Life Cycle Perspective: Assessments should consider the entire life cycle of the products from production to the final waste state.
  • Comprehensive Impact Analysis: Claims should evaluate all all significant environmental effects
  • Transparency in Greenhouse Gas Offsets: Companies shall clearly report the net-zero progress showing the offsets progress.

 

Verification and Simplification

A core element of the directive concerns the requirement that environmental claims be verified independently by a third party before publication.  This ensures that, as far as possible, the claims are independently verified.  There is, however, a simplified procedure for certain claims if a technical document is completed, allowing some flexibility while maintaining stringent standards.

 

Support for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

It is sensitive to SMEs challenges.   For microenterprises below 10 employees with annual turnovers below EUR 2 million, there will be a further 14-month implementation period.   They shall be provided with guidelines, tools, financial support, and training in the context of compliance with the new standards.

 

Public Environmental Labels

The directive also applies to existing national and regional labelling schemes.  Labels approved under EU criteria will not require third-party verification, and EN ISO 14024 type 1 ecolabels accepted in one member state will be accepted throughout the EU.  The aim of this is harmonisation of environmental labels and thereby simplification and coherence.

 

Climate-Related Claims

There are specific rules for climate-related claims, especially those involving carbon credits. A business is required to clearly state the type and quantity of carbon credits and demonstrate that the same contribute or offset claims to climate action.  Examples of the application of a net-zero target and progress toward reductions have been given.

 

Penalties for Non-Compliance

Significantly, businesses are hit with heavy penalties for making adverse, inaccurate, or unsubstantiated environmental claims so that the directive may successfully serve its purpose.  The fine may run as high as 4% of the annual turnover of the concerned business.  This, therefore, makes the economic impact of non-compliance high enough to deter greenwashing.

 

Next Steps

On 18 June 2024, the EU Council adopted its mandate on the Green Claims Directive, a critical, big step.  It is expected that the negotiations with the European Parliament will begin during the legislative term.  The enforcement of the directive is scheduled for the year 2024 and final implementation in 2027.

 

Conclusion

The Green Claims Directive is positively a footprint toward accountability and transparency in environmental marketing from the EU.  It seeks to protect consumers from inaccurate information about environmental performance, to be able to back up genuine sustainability efforts, and then help attain climate neutrality in the EU by 2050.  This new level of accountability will not only guide consumer decisions aright, therefore steering consumers toward the right choices but also put companies on the right path toward sustainable action – the very essence of sustainability for the environment and society.

 

How Trustnet.Trade Can Help

Trustnet.Trade helps companies fulfill the requirements of the EU Green Claims Directive by supporting environmental standards compliance measures.  Detailed online questionnaires on the online platform may help to ensure that business partners adhere to set sustainability standards regarding workers’ rights, occupational safety, and the protection of the environment.  The platform offers easy-to-use templates and guidelines to monitor clear and verifiable sustainability data with business partners.  The Trustnet.Trade widget displays compliance status, enhancing transparency and supports companies in their work to eliminate greenwashing and achieve real sustainability.

More to explorer

Get in Touch with us

By using this form, you agree with the storage and the handling of your data by this website in accordance with our privacy policy.

* Mandatory field

Request Your Promo Code!

By using this form, you agree with the storage and the handling of your data by this website in accordance with our privacy policy.

* Mandatory field