In recent years, increasing attention has been paid to environmental issues. This is reflected not only in EU legislation, but also in the lifestyles and purchasing habits of a growing number of people. Not surprisingly, businesses are also responding to this, both by introducing a range of pro-environmental solutions and by taking care to emphasise their environmentally friendly attitude in their marketing messages. However, eco-marketing is not always synonymous with running an eco-friendly business. Greenwashing, as such a phenomenon is called, is of course negatively evaluated, and in certain situations may even give rise to serious consequences, including criminal law.
Types of greenwashing
There are couple of different types of greenwashing:
- The most common is greenlabeling, which is the practice of applying the terminology ‘eco’, ‘bio’, ‘natural’, etc. to products and services that do not actually have these characteristics.
- Greenlighting is also common, which means focusing on one eco-friendly measure to the exclusion of a number of others that are harmful to the environment.
- Greencrowding, on the other hand, is referred to as hiding in a large group of actors with ambitious environmental goals that are in reality implemented on a small scale or are not measurable. Referring to, for example, paid assessments of ESG systems devoid of open, transparent, comparable criteria is also regarded as greenwashing.
- The deliberate concealment of ongoing sustainability-related activities in order to avoid audits and questions about the company as a whole or investments that could reveal harmful activities also bears the hallmark of greenwashing. Such a practice is called greenhushing.
- Greenrinsing, on the other hand, is regularly changing ESG targets before they have been achieved.
- Greenshifting is shifting the responsibility for environmental care from the producer to the consumers; encouraging environmentally friendly behaviour despite not meeting the standards themselves.
Criminal liability
If a company advertises itself untruthfully, e.g. as an ‘environmentally friendly company’, and thereby misleads the other contractual party, this situation may give rise to the risk of criminal liability. This is an act of unfair competition and also constitutes an offence. In certain cases, it may also be treated as a fraudulent offence.
The use of a certificate, quality mark or equivalent without being authorised to do so is blacklisted as an unfair market practice.
The use of a certificate without authorisation may also result in the falsification of a document or the certification of a falsehood.
Full article is available in Polish here.
