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How do you make environmental claims?

This article gives advice on how to substantiate your environmental claims.

Daan van Hal avatar
Written by Daan van Hal
Updated over a week ago

Currently, there is no universal methodology that has to be followed in order to make an environmental claim. To make sure that your environmental claim is not considered greenwashing, we advise you to contact the authority consumer & market authority in your country. However, based on the guidelines reported by ACM and the Green Claim Directive of the European Commission this article gives advice on how to substantiate green claims.

Consider the following points if your company wants to make an environmental claim:

  1. Make clear what sustainability benefit the product offers

  2. Substantiate your sustainability claims with facts, and keep them up-to-date

  3. Comparisons with other products, services, or companies must be fair

  4. Be honest and specific about your company’s efforts with regard to sustainability

  5. Make sure that visual claims and labels are useful to consumers, and not confusing.

  6. Avoid vague terms such as 'this is the eco score, therefore we are sustainable'

  7. Assigning two independent persons in your company to perform environmental scans with the Pickler methodology helps to eliminate possible 'human' mistakes and highlights the areas of input that might be too subjective

Within the scope of our methodology, the following claims can be made as long as a link is provided to the eco forecast (1) or the comparison in Pickler (2,3):

  1. Statement: Product A has a footprint of X, based on the Pickler methodology

  2. Comparison over time: We achieved a reduction of X% at customer A/our company compared to the previous year

  3. Comparison to future: Replacing material B of Product A will result in a yield reduction of X%

For the following claims, make sure that the products have similar functions and properties and provide a link to the comparison in Pickler:

  1. Comparison as-is: Product A is X% better than product Y (average of the comparable product category)

  2. Comparison as-is: Product A is X% better than product Y (own product)

The following claim should be avoided since the necessary evidence is missing:

  1. Comparison as-is: Product A is X% better than product Y (competitor)

True price

When a product is expressed in ‘its true price’, substantiate how you calculated the true price, it should be clear for the consumer how the true price is calculated.

While we strive to provide accurate and reliable information through the Pickler application, we cannot guarantee its accuracy or completeness. Users are solely responsible for any decisions or actions taken based on the results generated by the Pickler application and should exercise caution and seek expert advice where necessary.

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