Social media ads are littered with ‘green’ claims. How are we supposed to know they’re true?
Social platforms are awash with ads for so-called “green” products. Power companies are “carbon neutral”. Electronics are “for the planet”. Clothing is “circular” and travel is “sustainable”. Or are they? Our study of more than 8,000 ads served more than 20,000 times in people's Facebook feeds found many green claims are vague, meaningless or unsubstantiated and consumers are potentially being deceived.
This costs consumers, as products claiming to be greener are often more expensive. And it costs the planet, as false and exaggerated green claims – or “greenwashing” – make it seem more is being done to tackle climate change and other environmental crises than is really happening.
The widespread use of these claims could delay important action on tackling climate change, as it dilutes the sense of urgency around the issue.
Our research is part of a newly published report produced by the not-for-profit Consumer Policy Research Centre, researchers at Melbourne Law School and the Australian Ad Observatory, a project of ADM S (ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society).
The Ad Observatory captures ads from the personal Facebook feeds of around 2,000 people who “donate” their ads to the project via a browser plugin. This lets us analyse otherwise unobservable and ephemeral ads.
We found the most common claims were “clean”, “green” and “sustainable”. Other popular terms were “bio”, “recycled” or “recyclable”, “pure” and “eco-friendly”, often with no explanation of what lay behind them. All are very general, undefined terms, yet they imply a more environmentally responsible choice.
Our report didn't verify each claim nor analysed their accuracy. We intended to highlight the volume and breadth of the green
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