On Monday 20 July, the European Commission published the roadmap for its future proposal for a European regulation to require companies to substantiate their claims about the environmental footprint of their products and services by using standard methods for quantifying them. In this way, it hopes to fight greenwashing.
In view of the multiplication of methods for measuring and assessing environmental impacts and the proliferation of labels and claims related to environmental information, the Commission wants to make the “green claims reliable, comparable and verifiable across the European Union”.
It believes that this should help buyers and investors to make more sustainable decisions, while at the same time increasing consumer confidence in green labels and other environmental information. According to the institution, three out of ten citizens have come across exaggerated or misleading “green claims”.
Among the options identified, the Commission is considering updating its recommendation (2013/179 - see EUROPE 10823/10) proposing the methods ‘Product Environmental Footprint’ (PEF) and ‘Organisation Environmental Footprint’ (OEF) as common means of measuring environmental performance.
It considers that this recommendation represents a loophole in the regulation, in particular because the calculation methods are voluntary and companies can use other methods.
Another option under consideration is the establishment of a voluntary Community legal framework allowing companies to make ‘green’ declarations in accordance with the PEF and OEF methods, complementing existing methods (developed by private or public entities, at national or international level).
Finally, the third option: the establishment of a Community legal framework, this time binding, obliging companies making declarations relating to the impacts covered by the PEF and OEF methods to justify them by the latter.
The public consultation on the Roadmap will close on 31 August.
To view the roadmap and participate in the public consultation: https://bit.ly/2ZQp9n1 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)