EU’s Green Claims Directive

The Green Claims Directive of the European Union represents a major advancement in the fight against greenwashing and in empowering consumers to make well-informed choices. The directive sets out specific criteria for environmental claims, with the goal of enabling consumers to have confidence in the information presented by businesses and to make informed decisions about their purchasing habits.

Key objectives of the Green Claims Directive

The directive seeks to achieve several key objectives:

• Reliability and comparability: ensure that environmental claims are reliable, comparable, and verifiable
• Consumer empowerment: help consumers make informed purchasing decisions
• Level playing field: create a common approach for green claims across the EU, ensuring a fair, competitive environment

How the Green Claims Directive will work

The proposed Green Claims Directive addresses voluntary explicit claims made by businesses about their products or traders’ environmental impacts, aspects, or performance that are not covered by other EU rules. These claims imply a positive or reduced environmental impact, no impact, or improvement over time for their products, services, or organization.

Member States will establish independent verification and enforcement processes. These processes require that:

• Claims are supported by widely recognized scientific evidence that clearly identifies environmental impacts and trade-offs
• Comparisons between products or organizations are fair and based on equivalent data
• Claims or labels that aggregate a product’s overall environmental impact (e.g., on biodiversity, climate, water, soil) are not allowed unless specified by EU rules
• Environmental labeling schemes are reliable and controlled, with a preference for EU-level schemes. New public schemes are only allowed at the EU level, while new private schemes must demonstrate higher environmental ambition and receive pre-approval
• Environmental labels are transparent, third-party verified, and regularly reviewed

Proposed timeline and scope

The EU Commission adopted the Green Claims Directive in March 2023. The European Parliament and the EU Council are currently reviewing and negotiating the details of the directive. Once agreed upon, member states will have two years to incorporate it into their national laws.

Preparing for the Green Claims Directive

Businesses can take proactive steps to prepare for the implementation of the directive, including:

• Data collection and scientific evidence: gathering and analyzing data to substantiate environmental claims
• Digital disclosure: implementing systems to share environmental information via URLs or QR codes

By enhancing their understanding and communication of product details and impacts, businesses can ensure compliance with the Green Claims Directive and build trust with consumers.