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The era of “Net Zero by 20-fill-in-the-blank” marketing may soon be coming to a close. At least in the European Union anyway. The EU parliament is set to pass a new set of rules that aim to ban vague verbiage from products and services, including “environmentally friendly,” “eco-friendly,” “eco,” “green,” “nature’s friend,” “animal-friendly,” “cruelty-free,” “sustainable,” “ecological,” “environmentally correct,” “climate friendly,” “gentle on the environment,” “deforestation-free,” “carbon friendly,” “energy efficient,” “biodegradable,” “plastic neutral,” “plastic- free,” and “biobased.” Perhaps most consequentially, the regulations will forbid any claims of having a “neutral, reduced, or positive impact on the environment” that are backed by carbon offsetting schemes.
In other words: The new regulations will require companies to show substantial evidence to back up any sustainability claims. This could force corporations to reconsider how they allocate budget for sustainability efforts and open up an avenue for product, packaging, and graphic designers to produce more ecological designs and marketing. But while the new regulations may give designers a foothold to advocate for practices that actually promote sustainability, one can’t help but wonder if the new regulations will be enough, or if they will bring about a new era of greenwashing phrasing and aesthetics.
The proposed rules target almost any words or claims that suggest a product or service might be good for the environment without clear evidence—even natural is on the chopping block. “Natural is such an empty term it’s almost funny,” says designer Jonny Black of San Francisco-based Office of Ordinary Things, an agency working with sustainable communication and packaging design.
Some of the other common greenwashing strategies will be tough to bypass as well. For example, the EU will crackdown on the use of unapproved certification labels. In the EU there are reportedly more than 230 different packaging labels being used for claims related to sustainability, and 100 more related to clean energy. On top of that, some of the even more discreet forms of deception will be under scrutiny—for example, if an item’s claims of repairability or durability of the product are inflated.
“It’s never been easier to say you’re sustainable.” says Sandro Kvernmo, creative director at Goods, an Oslo-based design agency that analyzes and designs sustainable packaging. As we’re talking about what the new regulations might mean for design, Kvernmo tells me to search “apple.com/environment” and with a bemused look says, “that site has to be illegal.”
Earlier this year, Apple launched a campaign to announce the first carbon neutral Apple Watch, with a special carbon neutral logo to boot. You might believe, as the webpage claims, that the Series 9 is Apple’s “first carbon neutral product.” And it’s true—sort of. Only Apple’s Series 9 with the aluminum case and the “Sport Loop” band is climate neutral. Its other configurations are not. Yet, getting that information requires scrolling, then clicking into a PDF where those custom specifications are outlined. The company makes it more clear during the purchasing of a watch, where the logo appears when a carbon neutral combination is chosen. Apple’s marketing is not a lie, exactly, but it might fall into the gray area the EU is targeting. In theory, under the new EU rules, Apple’s new logo will have to go right into the trash if it doesn’t find a way to produce the carbon neutral watches without without using offsetting schemes.
Just how the EU will regulate these claims is another question altogether, though. As a multinational government body, it will rely on a number of different regulatory bodies to assess claims like Apple’s. But an early draft of the proposed regulations estimates the cost to businesses to be between 9.1 and 10.4 billion euros; they will increase consumer welfare by 12.5 to 19.4 billion euros, and save between 5 and 7 metric tons of CO2 emissions, over 15 years.
And Apple is certainly not the only one who will have to pay. According to the EU’s own numbers, 53% of claims suggesting some sort of positive ecological or environmental impact are vague, misleading or unfounded; 40% have no supporting evidence whatsoever. Many international brands have even run into trouble in the US where regulation is more lax. This year in the US, there were over 100 class-action lawsuits related to false greenwashing claims against brands like Amazon, Nike, Allbirds, McDonalds, Walmart, REI, Evian, Colgate, and many many more.
Among the brands that have faced repeated lawsuits over greenwashing claims, is the multinational Swedish fashion giant H&M. When asked about how the new EU regulations might impact their communication a representative informed me that the company “welcome[s] carefully crafted legal frameworks in this area.” And maintained that they “want to make it easy for customers to compare how sustainable a product is within and across brands.”
While a representative from the German automaker BMW, which was fined a billion dollars for false claims about its emissions, told me that in response to the new rules, “There is no provision in this context for reducing sustainability communication to avoid allegations of greenwashing.” Regulations or not, these companies are likely going to keep trying to convince us that they are some shade of green.
The opacity of many companies’ sustainability claims not only impacts consumers, but it also leaves designers in the dark. At Goods’, the studio has been working to design packaging and branding that puts a product’s ecology front and center. It requires a close relationship and trust with the industrial designers working on a product. “Very often, [designers] they’re not set up to know everything,” explains Kvernmo.
If a manufacturer is allowed to say a product is eco-friendly, who is a graphic designer to question it? With something as complex as a smartwatch or automobile, it’s nearly impossible for a packaging designer to fact-check the material and processes required to make it. A packaging designer often relies on manufacturers to validate whatever message they’re putting on the product.
This may be where the new regulations can offer an opportunity, Firmer expectations around what can and cannot be included on packaging helps to clear up some of the coercive messaging and empower designers that have thus far been ill-equipped to fight greenwashing. “I think it’s a really good moment,” says Kvernmo. “Suddenly, [designers] have a lever” to call out sustainability problems and offer design as a way to approach and ideally help solve them. The new laws could be an opportunity for brands to allocate more budget towards identifying and addressing specific sustainability issues.
Still, there are some that are still concerned about the effect of the new regulations. “We favor stronger guidelines against greenwashing in both the EU and the U.S.,” says Austin Whitman of the Climate Change Project, the creator of a Climate Neutral certification and label. “At the same time, there is a major risk in replacing these more familiar designations with vague claims.‘Carbon neutrality’ was only just starting to be more widely accepted. Now we are seeing claims like “on the path to a clean future” or “engaged for impact,” which will leave consumers confused or, worse, apathetic.”
Duncan Meisel of Clean Creatives, a group fighting to stop companies and designers from working with fossil fuel companies, says that the new regulations will “open space for real climate solutions in their place.” “On top of that,” he says, “agencies that work with polluters will find their work more difficult, and expensive to carry out.”
Legislators are currently putting together the final draft of the legislation and, by last count, a wide majority in EU parliament supports the new regulation. The final vote is scheduled for January, but the EU has given companies two years time until they will start regulating claims.
Part of the proposed regulations includes creating an “a harmonized graphic format”—or an EU label for products backed by the new product durability standards (all goods have a two-year guarantee in the EU, but this fact has often been hidden from consumers, on top of the right to repair.) And as it stands, violators of the new rules will be fined depending on numerous factors. Regulations may only go so far in subverting the would-be greenwashing industries, and it seems almost certain that they will adapt to the new rules. But if the graphic or packaging designer knows that lawmakers are on their side, they may feel more empowered to question claims on that soda bottle their designing the label for really is “climate-friendly.”
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