Green trademarks and the risk of greenwashing

AuthorKathryn Park
PositionPrincipal, Strategic Trademark Initiatives, Connecticut, USA

One recent study by Dentsu International and Microsoft Advertising suggested that over 90 percent of consumers are interested in brands that are committed to and can demonstrate they are making sustainability a priority. It further noted that companies that fail to implement this as a strategy will face a consumer backlash in the next few years. Other studies show that well over 50 percent of millennials and Gen Z consumers will pay more now for such goods. Offering green goods can be very good for business.

Consumers are skeptical about green marketing unless the company can transparently demonstrate the factual basis for green claims. Moreover, false or unsubstantiated green marketing claims can attract the attention of regulators, lawmakers and potential litigants. (Photo: Brian Yurasits / Unsplash)

With its potential to lure consumers, companies have embraced green marketing in many ways. These include adopting brand names that suggest green; using words like sustainable, compostable, green, organic, eco, zero impact and natural; featuring glossy shots of beautiful mountains, oceans and forests as backdrops in their advertising; use of green-based color schemes for advertising fonts and text; and making claims about the environmental benefits their products confer. But consumers are skeptical of such marketing unless the company can transparently demonstrate the factual basis for making such claims. Equally important, false or unsubstantiated green marketing claims can attract the attention of regulators, lawmakers and potential litigants, such as competitors, customers or consumer watchdogs.

Going green the right way

First, companies that are successful green marketers typically embrace sustainability across their business operations. For example, they make explicit and measurable commitments to reduce their impact on the environment, which are publicly reported and capable of being verified externally. Transparency is key. The claims must be factually supported and meaningful or material to consumers.

Second, and hand in hand with the above, successful green marketers do not overstate their sustainability impacts. Companies that make specific claims about particular products are more likely to convince consumers that the claims are legitimate if they are not couched in overly broad terms, but carefully qualified and supported by sound data.

Offering green goods can be very good for business.

Third, successful green marketers avoid environmental claims that, while strictly true, are misleading. For example, claiming fewer emissions in one refinery while 99 percent of the business continues to release pollutants into the environment is such a miniscule benefit that it does not materially change the negative environmental impact of the refinery’s business.

Customers are loyal to brands that have a proven track record of living up to their environmental commitments. For example, the women’s clothing brand, Eileen Fisher®, has a dedicated consumer base, which is appreciative of the brand’s commitment to sustainability. And that is highly visible because the company takes back its used clothing and recycles it into new goods.

Beware the green sheen – the perils of greenwashing

Guidelines promulgated by the Federal Trade...

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