The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI) issued Guidelines for Advertisements Making Environmental/ Green Claims to ensure that Environmental/Green Claims by businesses are reliable, verifiable, and transparent.  These guidelines respond to the growing consumer demand for environmentally friendly products and services. These further aim to enable consumers to make informed choices and prevent misleading greenwashing practices. Such claims may appear in any form such as ad campaigns, marketing, branding (including Company/Trade names), packaging, or other consumer information.

What is Environmental Claims/Green Claims?

It refers to any claim that signifies that the product or services advertised have any environmental benefit, are environment-friendly, less damaging to the environment, or tend to have a neutral/positive impact on environment.

Greenwashing involves making false or deceptive environmental claims. It is against Chapter I of the ASCI code on misleading advertisements, requiring that all green claims in advertisements must be clear, substantiated, and not misleading.

What do the Guidelines Prescribe?

• Environmental claims made about products or services shall be supported by robust/factual data and well-recognized or credible accreditations. This includes
  • Absolute claims (Like Sustainable, eco-friendly, Planet-friendly, etc.)
  • Comparative Claims (like Healthier, Greener, etc).

Such Claims cannot be weakened with disclaimers or clarifying mechanisms, such as QR codes or links to websites.

• Advertisers should qualify product claims such as compostable, biodegradable, recyclable, non-toxic, and free-of. should be supported by trustworthy scientific evidence.
• An environmental claim must clarify whether it relates to the product, its packaging, its service, or a portion thereof unless the context indicates otherwise.
• Advertisements should not mislead customers about a product’s environmental benefits by promoting the absence of harmful ingredients.
• It would be deceptive to claim that a product is “free of” a substance if it is free of one substance while it contains another substance that is known to have a similar or higher environmental risk
• If the use of Certifications or Seals of Approval gives the impression of an environmental claim to consumers, the advertiser should clearly state which product or service features were examined by the certifiers. Advertisers should check that the certifying agency is authorised by a recognised institution, such as the UN council or BIS.
• Advertisers must not employ visual components or colour scheme that give the appearance that a product is less harmful or is environment-friendly than it really is unless such representation is required under law.
• No aspirational claims on the products/ packaging/services about future environmental objectives unless they have developed clear and actionable plans towards its achievement.
• Carbon offset claims where the offset does not occur within the next two years, advertisers should clearly and prominently disclose the same provided such carbon reduction should be voluntary and not an obligation under law.

What is considered as an Advertisement?

As defined under Section 2(1) of the Consumer Protection Act, 2019, advertisement” means any audio or visual publicity, representation, endorsement or pronouncement made using light, sound, smoke, gas, print, electronic media, internet or website and includes any notice, circular, label, wrapper, invoice or such other documents.

ASCI has issued these guidelines with a view of ensuring reliability of Environmental/Green Claims and to make sure that there is no exploitation of consumers by means of such claims. All the Brands and Businesses are advised to go through the above-mentioned guideline and make sure that they are in compliance with the same.

Note: These guidelines become effective on February 15th, 2024.

Disclaimer:  This is an effort by Lexcomply.com, to contribute towards improving compliance management regime. User is advised not to construe this service as legal opinion and is advisable to take a view of subject experts.

Amisha Garg