Since 2010, the Two Sides campaign has been successful in getting misleading environmental claims changed or removed by more than 700 organisations, including some of the world's most high-profile companies.
With huge pressures on business and industry efforts to cut costs, banks, telecoms providers, utilities and even government organisations are increasingly focused on moving their customers to digital services. However, the communications around these moves are not always honest about their primary goal of cost savings, justifying these moves with nice-sounding but unsubstantiated environmental marketing claims like "Choose digital - For the sake of the environment."
In 2020, Two Sides has approached 320 organisations worldwide that have published misleading statements about paper. So far, 134 of them have removed such statements from their communications. The companies were located globally in Europe, North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand. This brings the total number of companies that have removed misleading greenwashing statements to 710 since the campaign began in 2010.
In 2020, 106 companies in Europe removed unsubstantiated claims about paper, including EDF energy, Eon, Marks and Spencer, Sparkasse, Volksbank-Raiffeisenbank, BHV/Le Marais and SNCF.
Jonathan Tame, chief executive of Two Sides, says: "These claims not only breach advertising codes, but are hugely damaging to an entire industry that has a solid and improving environmental record. Far from having to save trees, a healthy market for forest products such as paper promotes the long-term growth of forests through sustainable forestry. Many of the organisations we work with are always surprised to learn that European forests actually grow by 1,500 football pitches every day."
Jonathan Tame concludes, "Greenwashing is a real problem for our industry where we have seen a worrying increase in such statements under the current economic pressures. These negative messages threaten an industry that employs 1,096,000 people in more than 115,700 businesses in the EU and UK. Due to the enormous reach of some of these organisations, these unfounded claims about paper have a damaging impact on consumer perceptions of paper as a material. For this reason, the anti-greenwash campaign will continue to be a priority for Two Sides, and we urge businesses to think more carefully about the messages they convey in relation to going 'paperless'."
"We are grateful for the cooperation of the hundreds of organisations we have worked with over the years. We are also grateful for the many industry representatives and members of the public who send Two Sides examples of greenwash," Tame continued.
Two Sides will continue to take active action against large organisations that mislead consumers by making environmentally friendly claims about the use of paper.
www.twosides.info
