Accuracy of Environmental Claims on Product Labels to be Checked!

The European Commission is preparing to put on the table on March 30 a proposal that will force companies to verify their environmental claims using an EU-wide methodology that has been in the making for nearly ten years.

The Commission will put on the table the so-called 'green claims' regulation to ensure that environmental labels and credentials listed by companies – such as recyclability or biodegradability – are reliable, comparable, and verifiable across the EU.

This could be a tool to fight 'greenwashing' or companies making false claims about the environmental footprint of their products. This, in turn, could help consumers make more informed choices about the products they buy.

Companies will have to prove their claims using a single EU methodology called the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). In a preliminary cost-benefit analysis of the proposal, the Commission said that this method measures the “environmental performance of a product or organization throughout the value chain, from the extraction of raw materials to the end of its life cycle, using 16 environmental impact categories.”