GREENWASHING -

Why in the News?

Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has sought public comments on the proposed Draft Guidelines on Prevention and Regulation of Greenwashing issued under Consumer Protection Act, 2019.

Greenwashing involves making a product or policy seem more environmentally friendly or less damaging than it is in reality.

Key Highlights of the Draft Guidelines:

Defines and also prohibit greenwashing.
Applicability: Applies to all advertisements, service providers, advertisers, endorsers, etc. whose service is availed for the advertisement.
Information disclosure: Prohibits selective presenting of data and calls for fully disclosing environmental claims including vague terms like ‘green’, ‘eco-friendly’, ‘eco-consciousness’ used in advertisements.
Verification of claims: Requires substantiating environmental claims with credible certification, reliable scientific evidence, and independent third-party verification.
Conditions for futuristic environmental claims: Mandates making of futuristic environmental claims only when clear and actionable plans have been developed for achievement of objectives.

Types of Greenwashing:

Greenhushing: Companies underreport or hide their sustainable credentials to avoid scrutiny.
Greenrinsing: Companies regularly change their ESG (Environmental, Social, Governance) targets before achieving them.
Greenlabeling: Labeling an unsustainable product as green or sustainable.
Greenlighting: Highlighting a particularly green feature of a business’s products or activities to distract from environmentally harmful actions.
Greenshifting: Reducing the climate crisis to consumer behavior and shifting responsibility to individuals.
Greencrowding: Hiding within a group and being slow to adopt sustainability policies (e.g., the 20 largest single-use plastic waste producers being members of the Alliance to End Plastic Waste).

GREENWASHING

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