Government to introduce clearer "greenwashing" guidance

The government has today unveiled plans to help make it easier for firms to avoid the dreaded accusation of "greenwashing" by updating the guidance it issues for green marketing and advertising claims.

Lord Philip Hunt, the Minister for Sustainable Development, announced the launch of a steering group to assess the current Green Claims Code, which was last updated in 2003 and recommends changes to better support the huge increase in environmental marketing claims.

The government said that the aim was to develop an updated code that addresses gaps in the current code and makes it easier for firms to understand how they should make and verify environmental claims.

"Consumers are often confronted with all sorts of 'green' claims by companies and products," said Lord Hunt. "Working with industry and updating the Green Claims Code will support business to ensure that their claims are genuine and meaningful. It will also reassure consumers that when a green claim is made, they can feel confident it is truthful."

The steering group will consist of representatives from across the advertising and marketing industry, as well as the advertising watchdog the Advertising Standards Association (ASA) and a number of green groups.

Jonathan Collett, of trade group the Advertising Association, said that advances in technology and the recent proliferation in green ads meant it was necessary to update the code to "ensure that the self regulatory system is working effectively".

The ASA has seen a huge surge in complaints about green ads in recent years with figures last year showing that the watchdog received 561 complaints about environmental claims in 2007, up from fewer than 150 in 2006.

The number of complaints fell back in the last year, prompting the ASA to claim that its guidance on how to produce accurate green ads was working, but there were still a number of high-profile cases where adverts were banned for making misleading claims, leading to accusations from some advertisers that it was still unclear as to how they ensure adverts are compliant with the current green code.