Free Guide Aims to Help Agencies Eliminate Greenwashing

Global NGO Creatives for Climate has
launched a free first-of-its-kind guide, The Anti-Greenwash Guide for Agency
Leaders, to help
agency leaders respond to the ever-growing regulatory changes against
greenwashing at Creatives for Climate’s inaugural Ethical Agency
Summit
in Amsterdam earlier this month.

Hot on the heels of UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ recent
call
for news and tech media to stop enabling “planetary destruction” by taking
fossil-fuel advertising money and Edinburgh’s City Council becoming the
latest local government to ban ads for fossil
fuels
and other high-carbon products, the Anti-Greenwash Guide covers the latest in
regulatory frameworks, helpful tips for agencies to move away from inadvertent
greenwashing (including a pull-out “How Not to Greenwash” checklist), and
principles to guide agencies away from misleading and unsubstantiated
sustainability-related claims in communications campaigns.

Image credit: Creatives for Climate

There are also a variety of settled and active case studies of greenwashing from
marketing campaigns of global brands including HSBC,
KLM,
Oatly, Primark and Unilever — as well as examples of how to drive
positive change at scale.

“Given the increasing regulatory changes, many agencies are struggling to keep
up with the fast-changing laws. However, skirting the rules is the minimum
standard and should not be the ultimate goal when aiming to create impactful
campaigns that reflect the true nature of the climate crisis,” said founder and
CEO Lucy von Sturmer, founder and
CEO of Creatives for Climate — whose anti-greenwash resources for creatives also
include its Greenwash Watch
Course
and Greenwash
Swatch
tool. “This guide is designed to raise awareness about eliminating greenwashing
and protecting agencies, which we hope will achieve greater transformation to
steer the industry in the right direction.”

An exponential rise in legal and regulatory
action
against greenwashing has occurred in the last two years and greenwashing
litigation is expected to continue to grow in
2024.
The Anti-Greenwash Guide for Agency Leaders details examples of legislation
being introduced to clarify key terms, and specify what types of claims are
unlawful and which require further evidence.

“An anti-greenwash guide is such a helpful resource to guide us through the
complexities of communicating environmental messaging; the stakes are too high
not to get it right,” said Luke
Purdy, Director of Sustainability at
creative agency Wieden+Kennedy. “Our reach and
potential for impact at Wieden+Kennedy and the industry as a whole is huge,
which is why it is so vital that we’re as responsible as we can be with the
influence we wield. It matters what we say and how we say it.”

The guide also lists the latest regulatory frameworks addressing greenwashing
from across the globe — in Australia, Singapore, Europe, the US and
UK
— and summarizes them for readers.

“Agencies can land themselves in hot water if their campaigns fail to comply
with anti-greenwashing laws and regulations, as shown by recent legal action
involving global brands,” said Jonathan White, climate lawyer at ClientEarth,
who acted as an advisor on the development of the Guide. “This intensifying
legal scrutiny means that adhering to the latest rules is only the bare minimum.
Full and frank treatment of the facts through conscious and accurate messaging
is the way forward.”