Page 24 - PWM2023_February

BETTER BUSINESS

Prove your

eco claims

With sustainability back on the agenda and brands
found to be greenwashing called out all over social
media, being able to prove your eco claims is essen-
tial, by Adam Bernstein

T and straw combination. More
here’s something quaint
about Latin. Conveying a
recently, a November 2022 survey
from Clear PR into sustainability
level of authority and cor-
claims, found that almost half of UK
rectness, it’s used in med-
icine, law and business.
Take the phrase ‘dictum
deliver on their sustainable commit-
meum pactum’ or, in English, my businesses say they are failing to
ments, with one in five admitting to
word is my bond. The motto of the publicly exaggerating their green cre-
London Stock Exchange it under- dentials .
scores the trust that traders place in Environmental claims are taken
each in other that deals made will be seriously by many in print. In
honoured. November, marketing performance
But elsewhere in the world of com- specialist Go Inspire was awarded
merce, where relationships are less gold accreditation from EcoVadis
formal and business is less well estab- and invested around £1m in kit to
lished, the temptation to push the enhance its sustainability.
boundaries is ever present. And then there’s the Delta Group,
Consider the claims that some which triumphed in the large enter- mate change which is the biggest single environmental threat”. When busi-
organisations make in relation to prise Environmental Company of the nesses say that they ‘are greener’ he asks “what does that actually mean?
their green credentials. There are Year category at the 2022 Printweek Greener than what?” For him, that’s a statement without any comparator.
countless examples of firms being Awards. It’s taken great strides in this However, the statement would carry more weight in his view if, as he says,
hauled over the coals for ‘greenwash- area. it “used a science-based statement such as ‘the carbon footprint has
reduced from 1,200kg CO2e to 864kg CO2e’ as that demonstrates
ing’ claims – where they purport to improvement”.
be environmentally conscious for Checking on standards It’s of note that, as Harris has witnessed, businesses can choose to dis-
marketing purposes but actually Dominic Harris, co-founder and close their corporate carbon footprint or not, “but most print and packag-
aren’t making any notable sustaina- director of CarbonQuota, an emis- ing companies do not”.
bility efforts. sions consultancy, is well aware of But such firms should choose to publicly detail their carbon footprint in
Back in July (2022), Earth.org pub- the need to improve reporting stand- his view. And he explains why: “Our experience has shown that measuring
lished a list of corporations caught ards in print. His website states that and disclosing corporate carbon footprint is a pre-requisite of doing busi-
out. It included VW, which since the company was launched “to help ness with large corporations such as P&G, Sainsbury’s or CitiBank.”
2015 has been heavily punished for the packaging and print sector do a Increasingly, he says that the large buyers of print and packaging are
cheating emissions tests; Nestlé, lot more in sustainable production demanding product ‘carbon footprinting’ as part of their buying process so
which in 2018, said it had “ambi- because it’s a sector that has a ten- they can make science-based eco decisions before a project is produced.
tions” for packaging to be 100% recy- dency towards greenwash to protect
clable or reusable by 2025. However, its interests”. Understanding the detail
it didn’t release clear targets; and As Harris explains, carbon meas- So, with genuine inconsistency in the market, how can an onlooker
Starbucks, which in 2018, released a urement has become the gold stand- unpick a supplier’s eco claims?
‘straw-less lid’ as part of its sustaina- ard “because it is, when correctly The starting point for Harris is the lack of substantiation in a claim. He
bility drive, however the lid con- used, a scientific measure that says that in this situation “red lights should flash...” In responding to
tained more plastic than the old lid removes all subjectivity around cli- unsubstantiated claims, he says: “So what? When a claim is scientifically

24 PrintWeek MENA February 2023 www.printweekmena.com