The next step

The Green Claims Code

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The McKinsey report

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ASA: Climate change and the environment

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Should you be “carbon negative”?

Carbon neutral

A green claim that companies use to market themselves and their products is “carbon neutral”. This involves measuring their emissions then offsetting any that can’t be reduced, e.g. planting trees. The more reliable schemes, such as PAS2060 , also require reduction of emissions over time.

Claims clampdown

But in recent months these co-called “green claims” have come under intense scrutiny given that some of the carbon offsetting schemes aren’t very good. Tip. Carbon neutral is a tainted term at the moment so you should be cautious about using it. Even the chief certification scheme, The Carbon Trust, has changed its approach and got rid of its carbon neutral labelling scheme.

Carbon negative

This has deterred some companies (food, furniture, cosmetics to name a few) from using a (relatively) new phrase: “carbon negative”. As usual, definitions are ambiguous. But basically, a carbon neutral product removes as many emissions as it emits, while a carbon negative product is one that should remove more carbon than is released.

Green gimmick

Given that you will still need to use offsets, e.g. buying carbon credits, in order to make such a claim, you are still likely to be criticised. In other words, you’ll be accused of greenwashing. It’s far better to focus on reducing your greenhouse gas emissions and communicate that data rather than anything else.

Carbon can of worms. Marketing claims that only relate to carbon could also lead to questions being asked about what other aspects of your environmental impact you are monitoring and whether you are making any progress.

Confused

The other point to make is that your customers will either have seen stories about such carbon claims being a con, or they won’t really know what it means. Research by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) shows that most are baffled by terms like carbon neutral, and when they realise it means you can use offsets, they are not too happy about it (see The next step ).

But doesn’t sustainability sell? It certainly does. Research in the US led by McKinsey recently showed that making claims can drive sales (see The next step ). However, the more specific the claims the higher the value generated: products with “highly specific claims” like “carbon zero” enjoyed 8.5% higher sales than those without environmental, ethical or social claims; products with “medium-specific claims” like “sustainable packaging” were 4.7% higher; products with unspecified claims like “environmentally sustainable” were only 1.2% higher than those with no green claims. Tip.  If you are going to make a carbon negative claim, then make sure you are also working on reducing emissions; and ensure any offsets are 100% credible. Tip. Smaller companies may well get more leeway than larger ones when it comes to making green claims. But you still need to have evidence to back up what you say, so follow the Green Claims Code (see The next step ).

For a link to the ASA, the McKinsey report and the Green Claims Code, visit https://www.tips-and-advice.co.uk , Download Zone, year 22 issue 14.