What are green claims and Green Guides, and what action is the Federal Trade Commission currently taking?
A green claim is the general term for a claim that describes and promotes a product’s beneficial effect on the environment or ecosystem, or that states or implies it is manufactured or packaged in an environmentally friendly way, e.g., recyclable or biodegradable. In 1992, the FTC decided that guidance was necessary for the industry, so it published the first “Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims,” commonly known as the Green Guides. The FTC revises these guides periodically to respond to new eco claims in the marketplace, and to prevent deceptive and unfair advertising—its general mission. Q: Why is the FTC revising its Green Guides now rather than in 2009 as planned? A: Since the Green Guides were last updated in 1998, the FTC has tracked a significant increase in the use of environmental claims in product marketing. Marketers frequently use terms addressed in the Green Guides, such as recycled content, degradable, compostable or refillable, to claim that their packag
