Environmental claims getting you hot under the collar? Our guidance is a breath of fresh air

This summer’s heatwaves have fuelled discussion of anthropogenic climate change and the effect we as consumers have on the wider environment.

The products and services we choose to use can have a big effect on our personal carbon footprint so it’s unsurprising that there’s increasing demand from consumers for innovations in energy production and manufacturing that reduce harm to the environment and understandably businesses want to shout about their eco-credentials.

The ASA’s recent Pulse Report focussed on environmental claims in ads, using their AI powered Active Ad Monitoring system to review patterns in advertising including ecological claims. The report suggested that environmental claims in the ads reviewed were most likely to be absolute claims such as “eco-friendly”, “sustainable” or “carbon neutral”.

As might be expected the report showed that environmental claims were most common in sectors such as utilities, food and transport as well as developing sectors such as architects promoting “sustainable”, “eco-friendly” and “low carbon” homes.

The ASA say that these findings will inform future monitoring, engagement, guidance and enforcement work. On the back of this, CAP has published new guidance, “Green-speaking with confidence”.

We’ll use this guidance to shape our policy and ensure that audio and radio listeners can continue to hear the ads they hear. In the meantime, here are a few pointers to help your green claims get the green light.

• Avoid absolute claims such as “green/good for the planet/sustainable” as these are impossible to substantiate adequately. Everything has an environmental cost at some level if we consider the whole life cycle of a product or service from design to construction/manufacture, to use by the consumer and to disposal.
• We may be able to approve claims that a product or service is “less harmful to the environment” or for instance “more energy efficient” if the ad makes the basis of the comparison clear, the evidence for the claim considers the whole life cycle of both the advertised product and the competitor product against which “less harmful” is measured and the ad includes verification information. See here for what’s required.
• It’s likely we’ll need to send evidence for claims to our environmental consultant, especially where ads make novel or comparative claims. You should allow extra time for this and have a full dossier of high-quality evidence available to support your claims, when you send your ads for our review.
• Specific guidance is available from the ASA for ads that claim to offer carbon off-setting, net zero or carbon neutrality.
• The ASA offers extensive guidance on misleading environmental claims and social responsibility in advertising, available here. We may ask your client to review this guidance and explain to us how and why their messaging meets these requirements, especially where ads make sustainability claims.

Got a query on your copy? Contact the Clearance team at 020 7010 0608 or clearance@radiocentre.org