Managing greenwashing risk

Greenwashing is when a business makes unsupported claims about the positive impact that it, or its products or services, have on the environment. Claims may be inadequately supported by evidence of environmental impact, or simply be presented in a way which is misleading as to the business' true environmental impact.

Green claims can take many forms: statements about 'green' corporate missions and operations, anti-deforestation pledges, commentary about sustainable supply chains, nature-based solutions for products and processes, and commitments to the use of recycled materials and offsetting schemes. 

Increased awareness of green issues has led to a surge of green claims being made - voluntarily or otherwise - by businesses. This has resulted in a new wave of regulation and intervention to protect against "greenwashing".

As corporations are increasingly being publicly sanctioned and criticised for making misleading green claims, the consequences can be expensive, severe, and potentially catastrophic from a consumer trust perspective. A cautious and fully considered approach to making any statements around your company's green credentials is essential. Our expert lawyers can help.
 

What you need to know about greenwashing

The scrutiny of green claims is an evolving and increasingly important area of the law. New laws and regulations will be coming into force in 2024 in both the EU and the UK, and will impact all industries.

To protect your business, it's critical to understand the new legal and compliance landscape and to test your claims against it as soon as possible. 

How we can help you

We can provide everything you need to undertake essential, strategic risk-based green claims reviews, including:

• advising on green claim and supply chain regulatory compliance 
• assisting with regulator and competitor complaints, including alleged greenwashing, across Europe. 
• identifying regulatory compliance gaps and auditing your green claims 
• advising directors as to their legal and fiduciary duties when it comes to managing greenwashing risk across the business and reporting obligations
• advising on the impact of green statements in marketing communications, annual reports and sustainability reports
• amending supply chain contracts to ensure greenwashing risks and associated reporting and audit obligations are addressed
• providing disputes advice in legal actions based on green claims, e.g. breach of contractual terms as to sustainability, assertions that one party was induced to enter an agreement by a misrepresentation about environmental impact or activity, or that there has been fraudulent mis-selling of "green" products
• advising on employee complaints regarding misleading ESG credentials during recruitment
• auditing compliance with financial regulatory obligations concerning green claims
• advising on the reliance upon sustainability reports to raise finance and environmental fund investment
• green claims due diligence as part of M&A activity followed by bespoke board-level advice 
• horizon-scanning new laws, regulations and industry guidance that will impact on what our clients can say about their environmental goals and achievements
• providing multi-jurisdictional training on avoiding greenwashing for legal, compliance, scientific, marketing and communications teams