Ethical, Social, Green Online-Marketing

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Ethical, Social, Green Online-Marketing

If we want to create a new animal-friendly, value- and common good-oriented economy, then we have to look very closely at how credible a company's socially and environmentally responsible actions actually are.

That is why, when selecting GEOlaViva recommendations, I primarily use information from scientists, NGOs, investigative journalism and people who, through their research and commitment, are making a remarkable contribution to a better and fairer world.

I would like to exclude as far as possible the possibility that I support green, social, health or climate washing with my recommendations.

With the GEOlaViva CriteriaWheel I would like to transparently show the criteria according to which the recommendations were selected.

Ecological whitewashing on the Internet

After the EU Commission, together with national consumer protection authorities, searched the websites of companies for ecological whitewashing and examined 344 apparently dubious environmental claims in more detail, they found that

In more than half of the cases, the company did not provide consumers with sufficient information to assess the accuracy of the information.

In 37 percent of cases, vague and general claims such as “conscious”, “environmentally friendly” and “sustainable” were made, which were intended to give consumers the unfounded impression that a product had no negative impact on the environment.

Furthermore, in 59 percent of cases, the companies had not provided easily accessible evidence to support their claims.

In their overall assessment and taking into account various factors, the authorities had reason to believe in 42 percent of cases that the claims were false or misleading and therefore potentially constituted an unfair commercial practice within the meaning of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

Source: European Commission - Ecological whitewashing on the Internet >>

Often, when ambition is displayed, the drive is actually only feigned.

Example:

Source: European Parliament - Disposable plastic products: Parliament votes for ban from 2021 >>

In other sustainability statements, however, transparency is lacking:

Food Waste Reduction Program = What exactly does the Food Waste Program look like?

Electricity from renewable energies = How many shares of renewable energy - 100%? Own system?

Parts of the CO² emissions are offset by certificates = How many parts and to whom exactly are the CO² emissions offset? Are measures being taken to reduce CO² emissions?


Now that it is becoming increasingly clear that the advertising terms “climate neutral”, “CO² neutral”, “climate positive” or “CO² positive” are more than questionable, each company will have to decide for itself whether it wants to continue to jeopardise its credibility with these green claims.

The European Commission is also calling for more reliable environmental information for products and services.

Source: European Commission against "Greenwashing" >>

More information is available from DUH >>, Foodwatch >>, the Competition Centre >> and soon from GEOlaViva.

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