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An investigation by Greenpeace UK’s ‘Unearthed’ journalism unit has found that several companies are still greenwashing despite warnings from the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA).
Greenwashing is still ongoing in the UK, an investigation by Greenpeace UK’s journalism unit ‘Unearthed’ has found.
According to a report by The Guardian, various companies have continued to publish unfounded claims about the environmental cost of their services or products over the last several years, even when explicitly told to remove them by the UK’s ASA.
Some organisations mentioned include Virgin Atlantic, Renault and Aqua Pura.
A greenwashing crackdown was announced by the ASA in 2021. As part of this initiative, 44 firms were told they had produced misleading advertisements and warned to remove them from publication. According to Unearthed’s investigation, at least five are still posting the same claims they were originally censured for.
Unfortunately for the ASA, it has little jurisdictive power beyond public reports and naming those guilty of greenwashing. It cannot issue fines or forcibly take down any public advertisements.
It can ask search engines to remove paid advertisements that include any questionable claims, call out the companies in question on the ASA website, and pay for its own paid searches that relay its findings. However, in the grand scheme of things, all of these efforts are unlikely to make much of a dent in public awareness or perception.
All three of the previously mentioned companies have social media posts publicly available that have been called out by the ASA.
Virgin Atlantic claimed to complete the first transatlantic flight using ‘100% sustainable aviation fuel’ on its Instagram, Renault published videos on YouTube and Facebook last year that stated its hybrid cars provided ‘up to 80% electric driving in the city’, and Aqua Pura has described its caps as ‘new [and] environmentally friendly.’
In all three cases, the ASA said the language used was misleading and misrepresentative of the total environmental impact each product costs. Despite being warned to remove, change, or replace these advertisements, none have been taken down.
