A new report from the Consumer Policy Research Centre (CPRC) reveals that consumers are worried they’re being duped on the authenticity of green and sustainable product claims, which are not easy to verify.
For the report, CPRC surveyed Australian consumers on their experience of ‘green’ claims and conducted a 24-hour audit which found that only a third of the total green claims seen had supporting evidence.
CPRC CEO, Erin Turner, said this is a huge factor because “Australians want to make sustainable purchases, 45 per cent of people said sustainability was a factor in their decision-making.”
“In our investigation we found that too many businesses were making big environmental claims with vague terms.
“For a consumer, it is often unclear if the green claims businesses are making are genuine green-marketing or greenwashing,” he said.
At the top of the list of products that consumers have purchased because of green claims are household cleaning products (47 per cent), groceries (42 per cent) and beauty and personal care (30 per cent).
At least 50 per cent of people said they were worried about the truthfulness of green claims across every sector questioned, from energy markets to superannuation.
For businesses that engage in greenwashing, the research revealed a warning with 47 per cent of Australians saying they would stop purchasing from a business that engaged in greenwashing and 35 per cent said they would warn their friends and family. And many, wrongly, assume that a trusted third-party is fact-checking green claims before sale (45 per cent).
“This is not the case, there is no third-party checking. Consumers should be able to trust that the sustainable claims they see are backed up with real environmental action but at the moment it’s too hard to tell a vague promise from a genuine commitment.
“Business must take more responsibility for ensuring their green claims are truthful, accurate and easy for consumers to understand.
“We want a world where it’s easy for people to find meaningful sustainable options when they shop. To make this happen, we need regulators to continue to crack down on greenwashing as well as new laws to improve the quality of green claims consumers see.
“Right now, it’s far too hard for a consumer to figure out if the green products they are buying will make a genuine difference. It should be much easier to be green,” Turner said.
More information, including the full report, The consumer experience of green claim in Australia —‘carbon neutral what the heck is that?’ is available at: www.cprc.org.au/green-claims
