December 01, 2023

Seeing Green

Green claims are everywhere, even on social media. But how easy is it for consumers to tell the difference between a genuine environmental claim and a meaningless one? CPRC, in partnership with ADM+S, has analysed over 20,000 impressions of more than 8,000 Facebook ads with green claims.

This report:

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Key findings

Top 5 sectors making the most environmental claims in their social media advertising: 

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%

1. Energy


 

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%

2. Household products


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%

3. Fashion including garments

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%

4. Health and personal care

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%

5. Travel

Three most prominent colour palettes: 

Five most prominent sets of emojis: 

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Green tick

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Leaf

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Earth

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Möbius loop

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Sun

The change we need to see

Australians deserve protections that stop poor quality green claims being advertised. The onus needs to be put back on businesses to provide information that’s clear, consistent and comparable.

Our ideas for meaningful change include: 

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Banning or defining generic environmental claims to help ensure consumers have access to accurate and meaningful information,
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Empowering the regulator to ban and define environmental claims to ensure regulation is in-step with this evolving space.
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Developing clear guidelines on the use of colour and imagery that implies environmental outcomes.
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Prohibiting specific high-polluting industries from using environmental claims in their advertising.

Where to from here?

As current guidance and laws are being reviewed and reconsidered, there is an opportunity to test whether greenwashing practices in Australia will be adequately addressed. 

CPRC welcomes the opportunity to work further on this issue with government, regulators, policy makers, academia and the community sector. 

If you are in one the above groups and would like a one-on-one briefing for your organisation, contact our team today. 


This report was completed in partnership with ADM+S

 

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