New analysis from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Provenance suggests that 74% of all products marketed online by British retailers feature some form of green claim – the research found an average of 2.9 green claims per product.
The data indicates that UK retailers are responding positively to a rise in consumer expectations around sustainability in recent years. The findings come from an analysis of almost 390k claims across nearly 132k SKUs, from seven major UK online supermarket retailers.
In conjunction with these findings, BRC and Provenance are launching the Retailer Green Claims Forum, a collaborative initiative aimed at enhancing green claims compliance and transparency in the retail sector. In collaboration with compliance bodies and standards organisations, the forum aims to empower retailers to share learnings and work towards harmonised industry standards for green claims.
The Competition & Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code came into effect in September 2021. This regulatory guidance stipulates that: all green claims must be accurate, clear, and backed by evidence; that they consider the full product life cycle; that comparisons are made fairly, and that they include all relevant information. The analysis by BRC and Provenance categorised all green claims as having a low, medium or high risk of breaching the guidance.
One in seven claims were found to have a high risk of misleading consumers – whilst this highlights the need for further progress, this is somewhat lower than levels reported in the CMA’s global review, which estimated that 40% of green claims could be misleading, state the pair.
By area of impact, carbon-related claims accounted for just 2.7% of all green claims, and 24% of these were classified as high risk. Nature-related claims accounted for more than half (55%) of green claims, but just 15% of these were classified as high risk.
The 10 most common high-risk claims identified were: sustainable; responsibly/sustainably sourced; 100% natural; 100% recyclable; responsible forestry; certified-sustainable; natural goodness; fully recyclable; 100% pure; and eco-friendly.
Tracey Banks, climate action roadmap manager at the BRC, says: “It's highly encouraging to see that retailers are responding to consumer demand for sustainability. We recognise, however, that the industry needs more support to ensure their green marketing is clear, accurate, and substantiated.
"What’s at stake is not just compliance, but a very real green growth opportunity. Our new Retailer Green Claims Forum with Provenance is a timely and essential initiative to help sustainability leaders collaborate with experts and peers to master green claims compliance and realise their commercial value.”
Jessi Baker, the founder of Provenance, adds: “It’s heartening to see retailers aren’t shying away from sustainability marketing efforts, and we’re excited to partner with the BRC on the Retailer Green Claims Forum to give them the confidence they need to make accurate and credible green claims. It’s a unique opportunity for sustainability leaders to collaborate, share best practice and increase compliance. We warmly invite all retail sustainability leaders to join us in this effort to drive positive change and build consumer trust.”
