The Cleaning & Hygiene Suppliers Association (CHSA) has incorporated the Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code into its Code of Practice.
Lorcan Mekitarian, Chair of the CHSA, explained: “Sustainability is a challenging and complex issue. Integrating the Green Claims Code into our Code of Practice shows the commitment of our members to embrace environmental sustainability and protect their customers from greenwashing.
“This move follows the development of our Roadmap to Sustainability. Our members are using the framework offered by the Roadmap to develop their ethical and environmental sustainability strategy.”
The CHSA’s rigorous Code of Practice requires its members to trade ethically, provide quality and fit-for-purpose products and to guarantee what’s on the box is what’s in the box. It now also requires members to make sure all green claims:
- Be truthful and accurate: businesses must live up to the claims they make about their products, services, brands and activities.
- Be clear and unambiguous: the meaning that a consumer is likely to take from a product’s messaging and the credentials of that product should match.
- Not omit or hide important information: claims must not prevent someone from making an informed choice because of the information they leave out.
- Only make fair and meaningful comparisons: any products compared should meet the same needs or be intended for the same purpose.
- Consider the full life cycle of the product: when making claims, businesses must consider the total impact of a product or service. Claims can be misleading where they don’t reflect the overall impact or where they focus on one aspect of it but not another.
- Be substantiated: businesses should be able to back up their claims with robust, credible and up to date evidence.
