With the rise in new products claiming to be green, Defra (the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs) has decided to update its Green Claims Code.  Customers wishing to avoid buying products that claim to be green but are only green washing can look to the code for guidance.

The code, first launched in 1998, was last updated by DEFRA in 2003.  The Green Claims Code “was devised to assist businesses to advertise their green products and services with confidence and help protect consumers from bogus or inaccurate claims.”

DEFRA decided that yet another new revision was needed now.  The new code will be “the new international standard on environmental claims, ISO 14021, which has been developed by standards bodies around the world.”  Lord Phillip Hunt, Minister for Sustainable Development and Energy Innovation and Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, made the following statement about why DEFRA has chosen to update the Code now:

Consumers are often confronted with all sorts of ‘green’ claims by companies and products. 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.

In other words the Green Claims Code is a little like the Housekeeping Seal of Approval, it verifies the authenticity of the green claims and verifies its effectiveness.  So many new products are hitting the market claiming to be environmentally sound that it is hard to distinguish the “snake oil” from the real thing.  In order to use the the official EU ecolabel and energy label, certain standards have to be met.  Various other green labels are used on different products and need to meet the Green Claims Code requirements, one of which is to explain what the particular symbol means.

In other words, when a green label is affixed on a product in the UK, it means that businesses and consumers will be confident that the product is indeed environmentally sound.

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Entry was posted on Thursday, February 19th, 2009 at 5:11 pm under Advertising, Ecommerce, Green Technology, Tips and advice.

Read more entries by Susan Wilson.
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