In 2019 ClientEarth brought a complaint against BP for its Possibilities Everywhere: Keep Advancing advertising campaign. BP emphasised its renewable energy investments as if they were a far bigger part of its business model than in reality.

A prime example of advertising greenwashing: the practice of using public messaging for companies to appear more environmentally friendly than they really are.

The complaint to the UK National Contact Point for the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Enterprises against BP, claiming that it was misleading.

Yet companies spend millions on reputational advertising to protect their social license to operate. They do it to attract customers, and they do it to win over supporters, sometimes in government, so that they can continue to operate as they wish.

It’s six years since this suit, but ClientEarth is reporting a huge uptick in interest among consumers recently around environmentally and socially conscious products, and consumers are much more concerned about making environmentally friendly purchasing decisions. So, companies have a real financial incentive to appear sustainable and socially conscious.

Conversely recent surveys have shown a growing public distrust in ‘green’ policies (More in Common, UN Global Compact European Networks). AS has been said, the problem with disinformation is not that you believe the lies, but you end up not recognising the truth.

ClientEarth is expressed its worry over the current level of greenwashing, with many different brands, for all sorts of products, latching onto consumer concern about the environment, and using more ‘green’ advertising to sell products. That’s not to say that every green claim made by a company is inaccurate or misleading, but there are certainly a lot of claims made that don’t match up with reality.

From using green imagery and typeface, or more ‘natural looking’ packaging to labelling products as ‘eco’ or ‘sustainable’ without those terms actually having any real meaning.

ClientEarth is now calling for a properly regulated advertising code with strong enforcement of existing laws. It also thinks that fossil fuel advertising, in particular, must come with a tobacco-style health warning about the dangers of fossil fuels, given that they cause dangerous climate change and global heating.

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