New CAP Guidance on Environmental Claims in Advertising

The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) has published a new guidance ‘Greenspeaking with Confidence’ which aims to help companies in communicating environmental claims.

The guidance focuses on key principles of the advertising rules in relation to environmental claims and shows how they can be applied in practise. Such principles include:

• Considering how consumers are likely to understand the claim;
• holding adequate evidence before making objective claims;
• avoiding overstating the environmental benefits of a product, service or initiative;
• ensuring claims and any qualifications are clear;
• being transparent about environmental initiatives and ambitions.

In addition to the guidance, CAP has also produced a checklist, that distils these key principles into a more straightforward resource for companies.