A growing number of consumers say they consider the sustainability and other environmental effects of the products they purchase. In turn, companies have increasingly begun to emphasize their climate-friendly initiatives when marketing their brands, using words like "green," "eco-friendly" and" sustainable" to describe their products.
This emphasis might attract a more eco-conscious consumer base, but it also comes with risk: Companies that fail to ensure that those claims are accurate and supported by objective evidence — and even businesses that do — might find themselves on the wrong side of a greenwashing claim.
Greenwashing claims allege that companies falsely or deceptively represent their business, products, investments or services as more environmentally friendly than they are. As the number of companies making these types of representations has surged, so, too, have challenges to this environmental-based marketing. These claims pose significant concern for companies up and down the supply chain, from manufacturers to distributors to retailers.
