The Competition Bureau unveiled new guidelines yesterday designed to protect consumers from companies that falsely claim to be eco-friendly or exaggerate their benefit to the environment.
But the voluntary nature of the rules and the fact Canada lacks specific standards that spell out definitions for green claims means consumers may still not be able to trust the message displayed on product labels.
The new industry guidelines outline a variety of factors companies should take into account before making green claims about their products.
For instance, companies should try to make specific statements telling consumers why their product is environmentally friendly and avoid vague ones, such as the assertion that their product is eco-friendly.
Companies should also not mislead consumers by claiming a product is pesticide- or chemical-free if those substances are normally never used in the production of that product.
And the Competition Bureau said companies should avoid claiming their products are "sustainable" because there is no clear definition of what that means or how a product can achieve it.
"Simply put, businesses should not make environmental claims unless they can back them up," Competition Bureau commissioner Sheridan Scott told a news conference.
"We believe this will provide consumers with greater assurance about the accuracy of the claims being made about the goods and services they buy."
The issue of environmental product declarations has been subject to increasing debate in recent months as more consumers factor a product's sustainability and environmental impact into their purchasing decisions.
The problem is that many of the claims on cleaning products, cosmetics and electronics tend to be vague, exaggerated, misleading and, in some cases, completely false.
The issue prompted officials at the Competition Bureau to develop guidelines designed to restore consumer confidence in the marketplace.
"We have no doubt this will benefit consumers and legitimate businesses," Ms. Scott said. "Consumers punish businesses that mislead them. Consumers don't want to be misled."
Businesses will have one year to change their practices to comply with the guidelines. After that, the Competition Bureau said, it will police the marketplace and target businesses that make egregious claims. The bureau said it will focus its efforts by identifying green claims that are most pervasive and most likely to have an impact on consumers. Companies that break the rules could be subject to fines or other penalties, such as removal of their product from store shelves.
Although the initiative is designed to protect consumers, the guidelines actually highlight some of the obstacles that exist when trying to legislate the images and messages conveyed by a product, according to Douglas Macdonald, senior lecturer at the University of Toronto's Centre for Environment.
"It gets complicated," he said. "For the product, how do you ensure its environmental value? ... How much energy was used to make the product? How durable is the product? How long will it last before we throw it away? You've got a lot of different values here today and that's the challenge for people who are trying to distinguish products based on environmental quality."
Dr. Macdonald said companies have been using images associated with nature, freshness and cleanliness to promote their products for decades, regardless of whether they are true and accurate. In order to reduce the incidence of false or misleading green claims effectively, the government would have to create new standards outlining specific definitions for claims about sustainability, efficiency or environmental benefit, he said.
Instead of voluntary guidelines that make suggestions for the types of claims companies should use, Dr. Macdonald said, Canada should adopt rigorous standards similar to those in place for food labels in order to reduce false or misleading claims.
"Legally enforceable requirements imposed by governments have impact," Dr. Macdonald said. "It's a clear statement by the society that these are new values that we really have accepted."
Although the voluntary guidelines may help, they simply may not be strong enough to eliminate false advertising from the marketplace, he said.
"It's a much weaker expression of the moral standards which a society is adopting."
