I heard a true story the other day of a leading company in renewable energy which was banned from saying in its marketing literature that its biomass products used ‘sustainably sourced’ wood.  The edict came from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), backed up by Defra. 

The offence? Using the S word.

Yes, warn your marketing agencies and copywriters right now. Any attempt to sell stuff using the S word is, well, unsustainable.

For 10 years Defra’s Green Claims Code has set out best practice on the content of environmental claims including accuracy, truthfulness, relevance, use of unambiguous terminology, presentation of claims and comparative claims.

As a proposed revision to the Code now explains:

“The concepts involved in sustainability are highly complex.  At this time there are no definite methods for measuring full sustainability or confirming its accomplishment (whether environmental, social and/or economic). Therefore claims about a product or service being ’sustainable’ or ‘environmentally sustainable’ should not be made.”

Don’t get them wrong. The Government wants to see more and better environmental claims.  It acknowledges that marketing has a huge role to play in promoting more sustainable lifestyle choices and that business must be a positive catalyst for change.

But given the changes to the ASA’s rules since September this year and from everything I continue to hear on this issue, massive proof is going to be needed to justify green claims in the future. 

No one has ever yet managed to persuade the ASA that they, or their product or service, are “sustainable”, “green” or “environmentally friendly”. And woe betides anyone who tries to use any absolute claim of “zero carbon” in their marketing. (Hmm, I can’t wait to see what will happen when a ‘definition’ of zero carbon is made by CLG, but Defra bans its use…)

If you want to know what you can say and what you can’t, updated guidance on Defra’s Green Claims Code is supposed to be coming out this month. 

But in the meantime it all seems to boil down to what is easily understood by the man on the street (specialist or well-informed audiences don’t count). If he understands ‘sustainable’ to mean one thing, and his mate thinks it’s another, then we have Ambiguity. And this does not sit comfortably with the ASA or the Government. 

Environmental claims are often complicated or very technical. But the underlying principles are the same for all, says the ASA Council – they look at everything from a consumer’s point of view.

In its defence, the ASA says its has seen a big rise in public scepticism about carbon and climate change claims since ‘Climategate’, the scandal revealed by the leaked emails from the University of East Anglia's Climatic Research Unit about 12 months ago. But it seems to me the most common cause for an ASA investigation and potential corporate reprimand is still a complaint from a competitor. 

Interestingly, having studied past ASA adjudications on this topic, there seem to be a few alternative ways in which environmental credentials can be promoted with a bit more legal leeway:

• Sponsorships can help to make you look greener by association (but needless to say no one is fooled by any cynical attempt to greenwash a baddie brand this way)
• PR and media information is not covered by ASA rules (but we have our own professional guidelines from bodies like the CIPR, and I see no reason why PR people should not apply the same rigour to environmental claims)
• Comparative claims can work (but only if there is a clear improvement over a previous product or a competitor and the comparison is very clear. In this context, any ‘independent’ research that backs up your claim must be entirely independent – you can’t have paid for it)
• And it looks like trade associations can have much more freedom in the claims they might make on their industries’ behalf, as they are not selling direct to the customer (but again, this is a complex area and best practice should still be observed).

I’m no lawyer, and I’ve witnessed some pretty perverse decisions on what can and cannot be said about environmental sustainability in the building industry.  I will be watching with interest what gets published by Defra shortly, including its latest research on consumers’ understanding of green terms.  For now, the best advice I can offer is to play it safe.  Put more time into becoming a greener business than you spend on saying it. 

You can also find further advice on my ‘10 top tips to avoid greenwash’ here.

You may already be familiar with Defra’s Green Claims Code. For 10 years it has set out best practice on the content of environmental claims including accuracy, truthfulness, relevance, use of unambiguous terminology, presentation of claims and comparative claims. 

About a year ago I blogged that Defra was consulting on an update to its guidance - well, the final consultation paper is now published. It is open for comment until 15 June this year.

I will put in a response. I'm very likely to echo the views of the great people at Futerra who have pointed out how toothless the guidance appears to be. (Read also this viewpoint by Fred Pearce in the Guardian).

But in the meantime, a flurry of new rules and guidance has emerged this year to help us understand what more we need to do to promote our green credentials in a way that guarantees greater credibility, consumer protection and social responsibility.

In January the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) published a framework and practical checklist for Responsible Environmental Marketing Communications (PDF).

The influential Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) also published its new codes just weeks ago. They bring in additional explicit rules designed to prevent exaggerated environmental promises by products, services and organisations.

The new CAP codes come into effect this September and will be regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority. They state that advertisers must ensure all environmental claims are crystal clear to consumers and all absolute claims must be backed by a “high level of substantiation”. We must acknowledge areas where scientific opinion is divided. We must also base environmental claims on the full lifecycle of the product.

It’s not just about standalone statements in some advertising copy. Linking a single, truthful claim (“we use natural paint to ensure no volatile organic compounds...”) with a broader claim (“Acme Homes are kinder to the planet…”) is likely to get us into hot water.  Even a scientifically accurate claim can be misleading if, taken out of context, it implies or omits something relevant.

The rules apply over all paid-for media, and even to websites and social media. 

And it goes well beyond what words we use – green claims can include pictures, colours and logos as well. 

PR consultants like myself may breathe a sign of relief that, technically, we’re immune - neither the CAP nor the ICC codes apply directly to ‘corporate communications’.  We argue that PR about a company’s aspirations and sustainability initiatives, its annual reports or CSR statements are usually provided in a context that will ensure there is no confusion with advertising claims. And anyway, we mutter, the media loves absolutes and hyperbole and has no time for all this qualified language.

However, we would be daft not to take on board every one of these new rules. 

It’s not as if it’s all so alien – the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) published guidelines on communicating about sustainability two years ago.

Green marketing is no different from regular marketing.  Business ethics still hold. Waging war on little green lies will protect corporate reputations, build more confident businesses and counter the cynics out to knock the industry.

10 top tips to avoid greenwash

1. If you talk about sustainability, energy,  waste, water, raw materials, noise,  air quality, global warming, greenhouse gases, wildlife, human health, toxins or other environmental topics in your marketing and PR, make sure you read up on the new codes and international standards like ISO 14021 which clarify requirements on environmental labelling.
2. Do an audit. Check the words, the pictures, the colours, the logos. 
3. Look at everything through the eyes of your most cynical competitor. Then apply what I call the Mum Test (would a “reasonable consumer” understand what this claim really means?)
4. Watch out for words like ‘reduced energy’, ‘reduced waste’ etc. Always make it clear what has been reduced.  Only make a feature of it if it has resulted in a significant environmental improvement taking all aspects of life cycle into account.
5. Verify as much as you can.  At the bottom of your advertisements, press releases and marketing literature, provide links to a section on your website where you publish the independent scientific evidence that backs up your claim.
6. Not everything has to have a full dossier addressing every conceivable impact of the product on the environment, but the greater the value being placed on the claim, the more robust verification needs to be.
7. If you’re planning a major campaign to promote your green credentials, first do some thorough consumer testing and perception research.
8. Reassess your claims regularly. Check whether circumstances have changed or what the latest scientific and technical evidence says.
9. Communicate the journey, not just the end result.  No one expects you to be zero carbon today. But you can gain respect by honestly communicating what actions have been carried out to help you work towards it.
10. Make sure your PR, advertising and digital marketing agencies understand the technical details.  No more fluff.  Demand compliance with the new legal requirements and best practice in communicating about sustainability.

PS. Need more advice? Check out my earlier blog posts on the '10 steps to absolution' from the 'Six Sins of Greenwashing'!

If you have been interested in my previous blog posts on environmental claims in business and the best ways to avoid greenwash, you might be interested to hear that Defra, the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) and the ISBA (another advertisers' body) are hosting a series of free workshops this month to get input into their planned revisions for the Green Claims Code (last revised in 2003).

Unfortunately, there is not a workshop dedicated purely to property or construction (a serious oversight IMHO, given the huge surge in interest in low and zero carbon buildings and communities, ecotowns and all things 'sustainable').

But the event in London next week (15 May) will cover utilities, energy and energy-using appliances, construction and industrial and... er, furniture.

The workshops are aimed at:

"getting businesses to contribute to the new green claims guidance which will help businesses understand how to make truthful and transparent claims about the environmental credentials of their products."

The events will apparently cover all aspects of advertising and marketing communications.

Defra's press notice on this came out just days before the first workshop, so I hope they still manage to get a reasonable turnout. I can't be at the event next week, but if you can I'd be fascinated to hear how it goes. The 15 May workshop will be at Wallacespace St Pancras, 22 Dukes Road, WC1H 9PN. Registration and breakfast at 8.30am. To request a place, email clare@ruthvenstuart.co.uk.