Regulating Environmental Marketing Claims: an International Perspective

The growth in consumers' interest in and concern about environmental issues has resulted in many organisations developing new products or repositioning existing products to attract "green consumers". Some firms have gone as fas as to specifically integrate a concern for the environmental into their corporate ethos (that is incorporate environmental concerns into their corporate objectives). Regardless of the path chosen, firms face difficulties in communicating the environmental attributes of products to consumers. In trying to provide environmental information to consumers, consumer groups, state and federal regulators and even competitors have charged that much of the environmental information is misleading and/or inaccurate. Environmental marketing claims can be considered misleading for a number of reasons.