Sustainability claims under scrutiny: brands face legal risks

As Earth Month rolls around each year, brands clamor to market their products as the sustainable option—a guilt-free purchase for the environmentally minded, timely for the holiday. But they might reconsider this year. Not only are customers more attuned to sniffing out shallow marketing claims than ever before, but a flimsily connected Earth Day promotion can also get brands into legal hot water.

Uk's asa bans unsustainable ads, setting new standard

In December, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned adverts from Superdry, Lacoste, and Nike. At the heart of the ASA’s complaints was the use of the word ‘sustainable’ or ‘sustainability’ without high levels of substantiation to quantify how, exactly, the products in question were sustainable—a word heavily used, but without a universally agreed upon definition.

None of the brands responded to requests for comment, but the bans, which came as part of a wider piece of work from the ASA as it investigates environmental claims in the retail fashion sector, illustrate just how far the needle has shifted in sustainability storytelling.

For many, the ASA’s crackdown was a long time coming. Fashion’s big sustainability surge at the tail end of the 2010s and the early 2020s can be typified by promises rather than action, and greenwashing swelled as a result.

Whether it was only using so-called ‘sustainable’ materials, diverting textiles from landfills, or decarbonization, brands were eager to put their stake in the ground on sustainability-related targets. Though target-setting is necessary to create company-wide climate action roadmaps, promises soon began to ring hollow as the deadlines to meet targets came and went without meaningful progress.

“I truly thought that it would only be a good thing that it was cool to be sustainable. But in fact, we just saw this shadow side of people taking advantage and doing one-off initiatives, or just flat-out lying about their sustainability work,” says Erin Allweiss, co-founder of communications agency No. 29, which works with clients such as French footwear brand Veja, US seaweed materials innovator Keel Labs, and US non-profit The Solutions Project, which funds and amplifies grassroots climate justice solutions.

Now, sustainability communicators recognize that when brands lack the evidence to back up their claims, it isn’t a communications issue but an operational one, and it should be solved long before they consider shouting about their efforts publicly.

“You can’t do the communications if the work isn’t being done. This is about living and breathing it,” says Lucy Evans, co-founder of PR and communications agency This Way Next, which works with clients including travel gear and documentary maker Groundtruth, Portuguese menswear brand Isto, and innovation platform The Mills Fabrica.

Recently, Evans worked with a knitwear brand to transition its British Wool supply to regenerative farming. The work was supported by certification body Pasture For Life and the project was “sense checked” by Textile Exchange in order to ensure the company was genuinely making a positive environmental impact, rather than simply greenwashing.

Sustainability isn’t just for Earth Day. It’s not this one moment in the calendar where we roll out a sustainability campaign. It can look quite disingenuous if brands are only cherry-picking when they’re talking about sustainability,” says Hughes. “If a brand is truly doing the work and baking sustainable practices within all its operations, then sustainability should be the golden thread through all of the storytelling.”