Consumers often struggle to decipher labels that claim sustainability or outline a product’s environmental impact. With greenwashing on the rise, misleading claims can make it difficult to distinguish truly sustainable choices from marketing spin. To address this, CEN and CENELEC have released a new brochure that helps organizations achieve their environmental goals while providing consumers with clearer, more verifiable information.
The European Commission is developing the Green Claims Directive to make green claims reliable, comparable and verifiable across Europe. This effort contributes to a circular and green economy and protects consumers from greenwashing.
Already existing technical standards can support the Commission’s objectives: they help improve organizations’ sustainability performance and to ensure the information presented to consumers is clear and transparent.
Our new publication explains the benefits of using technical standards when making green claims, including how it helps auditors and verifiers, and presents an indicative compilation of already existing environmental standards.
The list includes standards in the following areas:
- Circular economy
- Bio-based and biodegradability claims
- Climate-related claims
- Agri-related claims
- Claims on Management level
- Life cycle assessment
The brochure ‘Standards in support of trustworthy environmental claims’, developed in collaboration with AFNOR, DIN and NEN, is a valuable resource for both businesses and consumers, offering much needed clarity on sustainability matters in an increasingly complex market.
DIN also developed an interactive tool for the visual representation of the standards included in the brochure. Follow the link to find out more.
Explore it to learn how standards can contribute to trustworthy environmental communication!
