Environmental Marketing In Europe

Article by Avv. Felix

Hofer1

The European Approach

Up till now the Europe Union did not issue a set of harmonizing

principles and rules meant to specifically govern

'environmental/green marketing'.

The main reason for such approach was not disinterest from the

EU's institutional bodies towards the issue, but probably the

conviction of being the traditional regulations on commercial

communication perfectly suitable to cover this specific area in a

sufficient and proper way.

In fact, these provisions had already established a number of

basic principles requiring all commercial communication to:

not be misleading to the targeted public2,

be "readily recognizable as such and be distinguishable

from editorial content" (and all surreptitious promotional

messages to be explicitly banned)3,

not encourage behaviour grossly prejudicial to the protection

of the environment4,

not to result in a misleading commercial practice5,

a result that would occur any time:

it contains false information and is therefore

untruthful or in any way, including overall presentation, deceives

or is likely to deceive the average consumer, even if the

information is factually correct, in relation to one or more of the

following elements..: (a)..the nature of the product, (b)

its...main characteristics...such as its availability, benefits,

risks, execution, composition, accessories, .. method and date of

manufacture or provision, delivery, fitness for purpose, usage, ..

or the results to be expected from its

use

6,

it omits material information that the average

consumer needs, according to the context

7,

where «information requirements established by Community

law in relation to commercial communication including advertising

or marketing, a non-exhaustive list of which is contained in Annex

II, shall be regarded as material

8.

Obviously the EU did not miss the fact that environmental

aspects had become more and more relevant for a very broad range of

areas, impacting with significant (and frequently) negative effects

both, on contextual natural elements (polluting air, water, soil,

nature in general) as well as on manufacturing processes (e.g.

energy sources and consumption, carbon emissions, etc) and on

products' life cycle, their ? or their

components' - waste management and disposal.

The EU Commission's Directorates General also realized that

'green advertising' resulted in a very appealing marketing

tool to an increasing number of companies: to those trying to reach

out to an environmental conscious target public as well as to those

involved in particularly critical manufacturing processes (and

therefore intensely seeking to improve their corporate image with

the general public).

This additional aspect brought the issue of environmental claims

(and of their control) into play. To the purpose a research project

was assigned9 for preparing appropriate guidelines to be

considered by advertisers when using such claims in their

campaigns. The project's final report (dated December 2000)

basically recommended that environmental claims should refer and

adhere to the principles and indication of the ISO international

standards10 on 'Eco-Labelling'.

Following this path the Nordic Consumer Ombudsmen11

in 2005 decided that time had come for giving their earlier - in

1994 - adopted joint guidelines on 'Environmentally Oriented

Claims in Marketing' a refresh, considering that «a

greater awareness of environmental issues, working conditions and

social responsibility has led an increasing number of consumers to

take these aspects into consideration when shopping

,

while «companies often wish to express and display their

concern and awareness of the importance of these issues in their

marketing activities

.

The revisited guidelines set as key principles for environmental

marketing claims that all promotional messages:

must be accurate and balanced (i.e. making clear whether

claims, refer to a company's entire products' range or only

to some of them, to the packaging or other aspects, and avoiding

exaggeration on positive environmental impact),

should accurately consider the overall impression they convey

to the general public, making sure that such impression is based on

facts,

need to be phrased in a transparent and not misleading way and

must be able to offer proper substantiation on their claims

(possibly making the documents apt to sustain ethical claims

publicly available, e.g. on the company's website or in its

corporate information),

should use particular caution when referring to environmental

and ethical labels, where self-declared marks should pay attention

to avoid any potential confusion with official marks (in such cases

on all advertising material as well as on packaging there should

always appear a reference to where detailed information about the

used label system is available).

After its initially 'non-intrusive' approach the EU

Commission is now taking a far more pro-active position and has

recently adopted a specific Action Plan12, aimed at

promoting sustainable production and

consumption

by individuating the following list of

goals to be achieved:

(i) A new framework for environmental product

policy in order to push resource efficient and eco-friendly

products and raise the level of consumer awareness on the issue,

through:

increasing the existing eco-design requirements by extending

them to all energy related products and favouring

voluntary benchmarks of environmental

performance

,

reinforcing energy and environmental labelling through both,

covering a broader range of products through mandatory labelling as

well as favouring and promoting the use of the voluntary EU

Eco-label,

making financial incentives conditional on the achievement of a

certain level of energy or environmental performance and promoting

Green Public Procurement,

focusing on producers', retailers' and consumers'

education (also by sharing data and research on environmental

performance and impact of products and discussing these aspects in

open forums)

(ii) Providing a further impetus to promote

resource efficient and eco-innovative production, through:

boosting resource efficiency (i.e. more value by using fewer

resources),

supporting eco-innovation (also by establishing a reliable

third-party verification of the environmental performance of new

technologies),

enhancing the environmental potential of industry,

revisiting the voluntary EU eco-management and audit scheme

(EMAS Regulation),

creating a friendly regulatory environment for the development

of environmental industries in the EU (with a special focus on

Small and Medium Size Enterprises),

(iii) Contributing to sustainable consumption

and production internationally, through:

supporting both industry sectors in developing agreements for

achieving specific emission reductions or energy efficiency targets

as well as businesses intending to commit to reductions of

greenhouse gas emissions,

promoting sustainable consumption and production policies (SCP)

and sharing good practices on an international level,

creating a friendly legal environment for international trade

in environmental goods and services,

(iv) Performing concrete efforts...