Greenwashing news and archive

Asos, Boohoo, Asda investigated by UK watchdog over ‘green’ claims

A UK watchdog has launched an investigation into Asos, Boohoo, and Asda over their “green” claims. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said it wants to “get to the bottom” of whether the three companies are “misleading customers” over their products’ sustainability credentials. The move is part of the CMA’s recent effort to crack down on...

29 Jul 2022

Business |Opinion Featured

The New Transparency coming to fashion: regulations as a baseline for communicating sustainability

Hundreds of sustainability labels and schemes are crippling the apparel and footwear industry. This brouhaha prevents consumers and citizens from properly understanding the impact of the piece of garment that they are buying. But those same consumers are hungry for information, and the industry is hungry to provide. The EU Commission is...

12 Jul 2022

Business

Sustainability round-up June 2022

As the year progresses, there is one buzz word that keeps cropping up every month - greenwashing. Nobody wants to do it yet somebody is doing it as an industry watchdog recently revealed that fashion brands account for a quarter of all greenwashing complaints. At Shoptalk Europe 2022 at the beginning of the month, British designer Anya Hindmarch...

11 Jul 2022

FashionFeatured

How to move away from greenwashing?

Sustainability is an absolute necessity for fashion brands nowadays if we expect to have a planet by the end of this century. While many fashion brands are trying to make a true shift toward being more sustainable, some treat sustainability as a marketing tactic. The concept of “greenwashing” or conveying the false impression that a company’s...

6 Jul 2022

FashionFeatured

H&M 'greenwashed' its sustainability scores, says investigation

In May last year Higg, a sustainability software platform that helps companies measure impact, launched scorecards as part of the Higg Sustainability Profiles and Higg Index Materials. In simple terms, it offered a scorecard to provide a standardised way to compare performance across different products and brands, providing shoppers with an...

4 Jul 2022

Fashion

Fashion brands account for quarter of ‘greenwashing’ complaints to UK watchdog

Fashion brands have accounted for 1 in 4 ‘greenwashing’ complaints to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) since new guidelines were introduced last year, new research finds. Published in September 2021, The Green Claims Code lays out how businesses can communicate their green credentials in an honest and accurate way without...

27 Jun 2022

Business

New technology platform helps fashion industry tackle greenwashing

Tech platform startup Impactbytes helps companies meet their commitments to recently proposed EU legislation and substantiate their sustainability claims. It also provides e-commerce insights and connects sustainable brands with a large audience. According to Impactbytes, it is the first company worldwide to provide easy access to the...

20 Jun 2022

Business

FTC targets Kohl’s and Walmart for falsely advertising products as bamboo

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced it will be taking action against retail giants Kohl’s and Walmart, claiming the duo falsely marketed “dozens of rayon textile products as bamboo”. The commission is calling for both companies to pay penalties of 2.5 million dollars and three million dollars, which the FTC said are the largest...

12 Apr 2022

Business |BACKGROUND Featured

Game changing legislations looming over the apparel and footwear industry

In 2020 the EU Commission has launched a Circular Economy Action plan1, aiming at making sustainable products the norm in the EU, support the 2050 carbon neutrality target of the EU, and to push for sustainable growth. The textile sector has been singled out by the EU commission, together with four others, as one with the highest environmental...

25 Mar 2022

BusinessFeatured

Fashion certification schemes can enable greenwashing, according to report

A new report by the Changing Markets Foundation has found that certification schemes and voluntary initiatives could be helping to facilitate greenwashing in the fashion industry. The report, which has been published ahead of the EU’s Textile Strategy, outlined that the largest of these schemes, such as The Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC),...

24 Mar 2022

FashionFeatured

Fashion brands overstating their sustainability credentials could soon be named and shamed

A list naming and shaming greenwashing fashion businesses could soon be published if the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has its way. Last year the government organisation warned companies had until 2022 to make sure their environmental claims comply with the law. The Green Claims Code, published last October, lays out how businesses can...

21 Mar 2022

Business

UK government watchdog to investigate misleading environmental claims

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced it will be commencing a review of environmental claims in the fashion retail sector, investigating how products and services that claim to be ‘eco-friendly’ are marketed. The review aims to determine whether consumers could be being misled, as more and more retailers make claims centred...

14 Jan 2022