Beware of Greenwashing

New Guidelines set to prevent companies from making ‘green claims’.

Australia’s consumer watchdog (the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission or ACCC), has released guidelines to combat businesses wrongly claiming their products or operations are ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘green’.

The Green Marketing and the Trade Practices Act has been released to help businesses comply with the law.  Fines for those found guilty range are up to $1.1million for a company and up to $220,000 for individuals. 

So go green – but make sure it’s easy for your customers to understand why you are.  Eg. Origin had some ads that basically said if you switch to Greenpower it would be the same as “not driving your car for two years”.  The problem?  Origin have two Greenpower products and only one of them supports this claim.

Greenwashing:  wrongly claiming your products or operations are ‘green’