The UK’s advertising watchdog is banning ads that feature the terms ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘net zero’ unless companies can thoroughly back up their claims.
The move by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to crack down on environmental claims comes amid growing concerns surrounding greenwashing tactics.
Several food companies have been rapped by the ASA in recent years for misleading green claims.
Terms such as ‘carbon neutral’ and ‘net zero’ will now face increased scrutiny from the watchdog.
Carbon offsetting is a tool long used by airlines and oil giants to mitigate carbon debts in their own operations, by funding environmental projects that may be unrelated to their businesses.
It has recently gained popularity in grocery with the likes of Cranswick, Morrisons and BrewDog using offsetting to improve their carbon performances.
However, critics have pointed out that it’s often used as a way to distract from the bigger structural changes companies need to make in their journeys to net zero goals.
Misleading claims
Recent Changing Markets research showed that over 80% of misleading green claims in the food sector related to climate and many relied on the use of carbon offsets.
It also found over 40% of UK consumers were more likely to buy products labeled as carbon neutral, while 29% said they were willing to pay more for such products.
“Such a loophole disincentivises companies from reducing the emissions in their own supply chains, as they can just pay someone else to do it for them,” said Nusa Urbancic, campaigns director at Changing Markets.
“This is no way to do business in a climate emergency, when the science says that every single sector should reduce their emissions.”
The ASA said the decision to enforce stricter regulation came after a study around consumer understanding of such green terms. The results showed there was “little consensus” among those surveyed as to what those terms really meant.
“Worryingly, consumers struggled in particular with terms like ‘carbon neutral’ including by often believing that this meant companies would be reducing their carbon emissions when this was not the case,” a spokeswoman told The Grocer.
“Consumers were also confused by carbon offsets and, when the role that carbon offsets played in carbon neutrality claims was revealed, consumers told us that they felt misled.”
Five brands that made the ASA’s list of greenwashing shame
The ASA said it was “currently monitoring” those claims in ads to determine what concrete evidence brands would need to have to back up carbon neutrality claims in the future.
The watchdog is understood to be working on putting together guidance for businesses later in the year as there were no fixed definitions governing claims such as ‘green neutrality’.
“There are no sources of authority that govern how such schemes should be delivered via agreed methodologies,” it said. “Consumers told us that they think that such terms and schemes should be defined and agreed, but this is a matter for legislation, not something that the ASA can achieve by itself.”
In the meantime, the ASA will continue to scrutinise other related, unfounded environmental and net zero claims which breach existing rules.
The crackdown comes months after the Competition & Markets Authority said it would start investigating “vague and broad eco-statements” issued by fmcg retailers and suppliers.
A global sweep by the watchdog in 2021 found 40% of green claims made online could be misleading consumers.
“Should we find these companies are using misleading eco-claims, we won’t hesitate to take enforcement action – through the courts if necessary,” warned CMA CEO Sarah Cardell at the time.
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