Statement from Emilia Belliveau, Energy Transition Program Manager, Environmental Defence
Toronto | Traditional territories of the Mississaugas of the Credit, the Anishinaabeg, the Haudenosaunee, and the Wendat – Today, the Competition Bureau released its final guidelines on how corporations can comply with the government’s rules on greenwashing. The current rules aren’t strong enough to prevent corporate greenwashing, but the new guidelines should quiet the trumped-up backlash from parts of corporate Canada.
Since the law was amended last year, the fossil fuel industry and other companies have opposed the new rules with exaggerated complaints. They have used the greenwashing rules as cover to walk back climate commitments and avoid investor disclosures on emissions, fossil fuel finance, and progress towards climate targets.
Most recently, RBC decided not to disclose important information in their latest sustainability report and to abandon its $500 billion sustainable finance target. RBC blamed the greenwashing rules. But the guidelines are clear that the Bureau is looking at “representations made to the public for the purposes of marketing and promotion”, not reports to investors or information regulated by other government agencies.
Corporations have stirred up concern about the rules by conjuring the term “greenhushing” — claiming that the rules stop them from talking about their environmental efforts and using that as an excuse to abandon climate commitments. But that’s simply bogus. Claims like “net-zero” are made voluntarily. Nothing is preventing companies from promoting real good work. If companies want to take on environmental or climate initiatives, nothing is stopping them. If they want to advertise about those initiatives, they have to do so based on facts. If requiring evidence for green claims is considered “greenhushing,” it likely means the claims weren’t valid to begin with — and in that case, companies probably should hush
BACKGROUND
- The Competition Act was updated last year to address greenwashing, an increasingly pervasive issue where companies make false and misleading claims about how “green”, sustainable, and climate or environmentally friendly their products or businesses are. The new rules aim to ensure that businesses advertising and publicly promoting environmental benefits are being honest, by requiring evidence for those claims. The Competition Bureau, the agency responsible for the Competition Act, undertook two rounds of public consultation before releasing its final guidelines on how it will interpret and implement the changes.
- The finalized greenwashing guidelines give companies options for how they prove environmental claims. The guidelines did not strengthen the implementation of the new rules, as was recommended in Environmental Defence’s submission to the consultation. For example, the Bureau’s update did not include requiring best practices or the most robust standards of internationally recognized methodologies, or provide a list of examples for preferred standard. There is still work to be done to better equip the Competition Bureau to effectively address greenwashing and to close loopholes that allow companies to evade public accountability and skip out on correcting past misleading information.
ABOUT ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENCE (environmentaldefence.ca): Environmental Defence is a leading Canadian environmental advocacy organization that works with government, industry and individuals to defend clean water, a safe climate and healthy communities.
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For more information or to request an interview, please contact:
Midhat Moini, Environmental Defence, media@environmentaldefence.ca
