ASA to ban adverts which claim ‘carbon neutral’ status by using offsetting
The ASA is to ban the use of terms such as “carbon neutral”, “net zero” and “nature positive” where these are based on the purchase of carbon offsets. Image courtesy of Euractiv.com
After a six month investigation into Greenwashing the ASA has further developed its crackdown on misleading environmental claims.
This was reported by The Guardian on 15th May citing the example of Gucci and other users of rainforest offsets marketed by Verra which were found to have had little impact in practice on the ground. Under the new ASA regime any claim based on the purchase of offsets will have to be able to demonstrate that the offsets really work.
Gucci, Italy’s most valuable luxury brand, announced it had become “entirely carbon neutral” in 2019 in part using Verra’s rainforest offsets. It has deleted the claim from its website and said it was no longer working with South Pole, the Swiss carbon credit consultancy it partnered with on the commitment.
Verra, which operates the world’s leading carbon standard, and has had the major oil companies as purchaser’s of its carbon credits has strongly disputed the findings of The Guardian investigation which was first published in January.
Large companies can ill afford the brand equity damage that public climbdowns like this bring with them and as the image below shows there is now an increasing tendency to take highly visible action against what are felt to be misleading claims.
Activists now tend to call out perceived greenwashing in the most painfully public way. Image courtesy of ClientEarth - Badvertising
Amid concerns about credibility, companies are increasingly being encouraged to say they are making climate contributions when purchasing carbon credits instead of claiming they have offset their emissions.
At Seacourt we have taken a serious critical look at our own stance on environmental claims.
We have been working to reduce our carbon emissions since 1997 and have reached the position at the end of 2021 where our Scope 1 & 2 emissions are only 8.4 tonnes CO2e (less than two domestic households per EPA).
Our total emissions (Scopes 1-3 including complete supply chain) stood at 1,207.6 tonnes CO2e of which the overwhelming majority (83%) comes from paper.
We purchase Gold Standard VER offsets (carbon eliminated at source) from Climate Impact Partners to 105% of our total Scopes 1-3 emissions so we can state that our business is net carbon negative.