Stop Greenwashing: The New European Directive
The European Union launches a new directive against greenwashing, ensuring transparency and accurate information on products to protect consumers and promote environmental sustainability. Will it be enough?
In the current European and global landscape, greenwashing has assumed worrying proportions. This practice, which involves using misleading environmental statements for marketing purposes, has undermined consumer trust and compromised efforts to address climate change. Product labels and advertisements often feature ambiguous or generic claims of eco-sustainability, without providing concrete evidence of their real environmental impact.
The growing consumer awareness of the importance of sustainability has made greenwashing an increasingly urgent issue. People want to make informed and sustainable choices, but are often confused by deceptive commercial practices that exploit the image of environmentalism without real environmental commitment.
In response to this challenge, the European Union has adopted concrete measures to combat greenwashing and promote transparency in the commercial sector. The recent approval of the European Directive against Misleading Environmental Claims represents an important step forward in this direction. This new regulation aims to put an end to deceptive practices and ensure that environmental statements are supported by concrete and verifiable evidence.
The fight against greenwashing has become a priority for Europe, which is committed to protecting consumers and promoting sustainable development.
The fashion industry
The fashion industry is one of the sectors that heavily employs this deceptive practice, responsible for 2 to 8% of carbon emissions annually. Despite these certified and proven data, many companies in this sector persist in advertising their eco-friendly practices with slogans that do not truly reflect their environmental activities.
A report disseminated by Greenpeace has analyzed communication characteristics of the fashion industries, highlighting “some common traits in many of the initiatives examined, such as:
- the risk of confusing consumers with labels presented as certified but actually derived from corporate sustainability programs;
- the lack of third-party verification or evaluation of adherence to the highest environmental and social standards;
- the absence of supply chain traceability mechanisms;
- the absence of references to the need to depart from the current business model;
- the false narrative on circularity, such as sourcing recycled polyester from other industrial sectors instead of used garments;
- extensive use of misleading terms like “sustainable” or “responsible” associated with “materials” that, in fact, exhibit only slightly better environmental performance than virgin or conventional fibers;
- the continued use of fiber mixes like “Polycotton” often presented as more ecological;
- the choice to rely on the Higg index to assess material sustainability, a tool known for its partiality;
- the improvement of a single aspect/parameter of production such as reducing water consumption or reusing/recycling pre-consumer waste.”
However, the fashion industry is just the first of many sectors utilizing greenwashing to portray themselves as eco-friendly to consumers. The EU, however, has not stood idly by and has decided to find a solution to these decidedly unethical behaviors.
The new EU directives against Greenwashing
The EU has taken a firm stance against greenwashing with the approval of the new Directive aimed at ensuring greater transparency and information in product communications during the era of climate change. This initiative is a direct response to the rampant deceptive practices in product labeling and advertising.
Proposed by Brussels in March 2022, the “Green Claims Directive” was given the green light by the Council and European Parliament in September 2023, becoming mandatory for all member countries. Greenwashing, defined as a marketing strategy exploiting the appearance of environmentalism for profit, has been identified as a growing risk to consumers and the environment.
Starting in 2026, companies will be required to provide concrete evidence of the truthfulness of their environmental claims on products or services. The Directive explicitly prohibits the marketing of products labeled as “carbon neutral” when greenhouse gas emission offsets are not based on certified programs. This aims to ensure that claims about the environmental impact of products are supported by solid evidence.
The new regulation, approved on January 17, 2024, was favorably received by the European Parliament with 593 in favor, 21 against, and 14 abstentions. Rapporteur Biljana Borzan emphasized that this law will radically change the daily lives of Europeans, putting an end to the throwaway culture and making marketing practices more transparent. Companies will no longer be able to deceive consumers with generic claims like “eco” or “green” without providing concrete evidence of their environmental commitment.
The Directive also prohibits the use of environmental indicators not supported by recognized public certifications. Sustainability labels and environmental impact statements will only be allowed if based on approved certification systems. Additionally, statements suggesting a neutral, reduced, or positive environmental impact without concrete evidence of participation in emission offset programs will be banned.
A second objective of the Directive is to raise awareness among producers and consumers about product durability. Warranty information will be made more visible, and a new label will be introduced to identify products with a longer lifespan. False indications of product durability and repairability will also be prohibited, thus combating premature obsolescence.
Conclusion
The new Directive represents a significant step towards greater environmental responsibility and transparency in the European commercial sector. It is now up to member states to incorporate it into their national law within the next 24 months, thus ensuring better protection for consumers and the environment.
However, a question arises spontaneously: will this be the first real step towards a more sustainable world, or will it merely incentivize companies to refrain from discussing environmental sustainability? Will the new directives lead to the emergence of new environmentally damaging phenomena?