Everything about Green Claims Directive

Translated by Alessandra Fumagalli 

How many times do we buy a product, only because it is said to be “green”, “it contributes to the environment’s protection”, “only natural ingredients”, or other claims which recall nature, good habits, and those deliciousness that our mother or grandmother used to bake?

We all want to eat healthy, we always try to buy products which recall the environment, with its green packaging and some pictures with trees and leaves. We all know that eating healthy is a love habit for us and our environment, but sometimes it is difficult to understand which claims really describe a green product. 

Consumers are not able to easily understand which are the good and respectful foods for our organism and for our environment and it is usually easy to make the wrong choice due to the greenwashing and confusing good food with bad ones. And this is negative both for us and for our environment: low quality products are responsible for environmental pollution due to the chemical substances they contain and which are used to hide the terrible taste they have. 

The European Union wanted to clarify, trying to contrast all those companies that rely on greenwashing, at the expense of consumers and the planet, which are not thinking about the consequences of their actions. 

Consumers must be informed in the most transparent way, without omitting nothing or lying about a product’s features. This is true when it deals with food products, because the security of what we eat is important and any choice should be casual when we are referring to our health. 

Moreover, also the planet is a crucial point, a company that produces food, but uses chemical substances, pollutes the environment, because those chemical substances are thrown in the water table and polluted lands. 

The Green Claims Directive has the objective to give consumers more transparent and detailed information, guaranteeing more precise and easier labels. The consious consumption is the most important weapon we have against greenwashing and it is the only way to stir companies to adopt greener production systems for a better and healthier world. 

The Directive, experts say, “give an important warn also to general green claim: expressions like “green”, “ecocompatible”, “environmentally friendly” are not included in a sustainability brand and their specification is not given in clear terms through the same support or mean of communication”. 

“The stop of label’s neutrality about carbon emission is great news for consumers”, Ursula Pachl, vice-director of the European Consumer Organization BEUC, stated. “There are no carbon neutral or CO₂ neutral dairy products, plastic bottles, flights or bank accounts. These labels should not be used”. 

The European Union wants to clarify, and wants the consumers to choose awarely, without being deceived by false claims about nature and environment, in order to reveal the greenwashing. As experts say, “it is true that the European Taxonomy (Rule EU 2020-852) of the ecocompatible economic activities classifies activities based on their sustainability and therefore some technical criteria which define which processes are sustainable exist. However, this classification is not transferable on complex products as food ones”. 

For conscious consumption, to distinguish serious companies and those who promote greenwashing and for those who want to really help our planet it is extremely important being extremely aware of what we buy and eat. The aware consumption doesn’t walk into any greenwashing marketing traps, it means reading carefully the labels, before buying any products, and it means not deceiving in any claims which promise environment safeguard. 

In conclusion, conscious consumption can really help to make our world better and the Green Claims Directive is an extremely useful way to abolish greenwashing and award those companies that are really engaged in the environment’s safeguard. 

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