Head of Marketing
Edited: 23 Jun 2025
15 min read
Making green claims can be a powerful way to show your customers, employees and investors that your business is taking climate action seriously. But with increasing scrutiny around greenwashing and stricter regulations on sustainability disclosure, it’s not something to take lightly.
Inaccurate or overstated claims can quickly erode trust and even expose your business to legal risk. That’s why it’s more important than ever to understand what makes a claim credible and how to talk about your sustainability efforts with clarity and confidence.
This article outlines the essential rules and frameworks that shape today’s green claims landscape, including the UK’s Green Claims Code and the EU’s Green Claims Directive. It also offers practical advice for sustainability teams looking to communicate their climate progress in line with best practice – including guidance from the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) and examples from Ecologi’s community.
Why green claims matter
There are various reasons you may want to make green claims about your organisation’s environmental impacts. Done well, they can help build brand trust, engage employees and customers, and demonstrate responsible leadership to stakeholders. But poorly framed or unsubstantiated claims can backfire – leading to reputational risk, scrutiny from regulators, or accusations of greenwashing.
That’s why it’s essential to keep your claims grounded in what you’ve already done, with a clear line of sight on what comes next. Simple, specific, and transparent claims always land better than sweeping statements.
Regulations around green claims are getting stricter
New regulations are emerging to combat misleading green claims and greenwashing practices.
In the UK, the Green Claims Code provides guidance to businesses on crafting credible sustainability-related claims. Since misleading or inaccurate green claims can cause consumer rights issues, various other governmental bodies are also involved. For example, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) and Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) both play a role in legislating and overseeing green claims.
In the EU, the proposed Green Claims Directive is focused on protecting consumers. It specifies how green claims can be applied to certain types of products and organisations, and will require third-party verification of environmental claims before they’re made public.
Both of these regulations reflect a broader shift: scrutiny of greenwashing is intensifying, and sustainability teams must be ready to substantiate what they say.
Six rules for making credible green claims
Given the potential risks associated with green claims, it can be easy to panic - or not say anything about your environmental commitments at all. But there are simple, general rules you can follow when making green claims. The UK Green Claims Code offers a helpful checklist:
Be truthful and accurate.
Be clear and unambiguous.
Do not omit or hide important information.
Only make fair and meaningful comparisons.
Consider the full life cycle of the product.
Substantiate your claims with reliable evidence.
These principles apply whether you’re drafting a product label, publishing a report, or updating your website. If you're unsure whether a claim is okay to make, start by checking it against this list.
Using the VCMI to support carbon credit claims
If your business buys carbon credits as part of its climate strategy, the Voluntary Carbon Markets Integrity Initiative (VCMI) provides a structured framework for communicating this credibly.
Their Claims Code of Practice links eligibility to a set of foundational criteria – including science-based emissions reduction targets and transparent reporting – and sets out three tiers of claims (Silver, Gold, and Platinum) based on the amount of tonne-for-tonne mitigation achieved.
For example:
VCMI Silver = 10–50% of unabated emissions offset
VCMI Gold = 50–99%
VCMI Platinum = 100% or more
All tiers require progress on emissions reduction, third-party assurance, and proper disclosure. Sustainability professionals looking to communicate carbon credit claims in a consistent and credible way should consider aligning with this framework.
Note: VCMI claims apply only to your 'Goal 1' tonne-for-tonne mitigation – not broader net-zero claims or other contributions.
Tips for making high-integrity green claims
👉 Let your actions dictate your claims - not the other way around
Try not to start from the claim you want to make and work backwards - audiences know when companies are making environmental claims just for the marketing perks. Instead, follow all the steps in the right order (measure, reduce, fund projects, report, repeat!) and use your claims to describe what you've done so far and what comes next.
👉 Be accurate, be specific
Avoid vague statements like “eco-friendly” or “planet-positive”. Instead, make sure your sustainability disclosures explain clearly what you’ve done and back it up with data. And be transparent about what’s still a work in progress.
For example: "We use Ecologi to measure our emissions and set science-based reduction targets, which we have submitted to the SBTi for validation. In 2024 our total (scopes 1, 2, and 3) emissions were 101.1 tonnes, and we nominated a carbon price of £50 per tonne to fund Beyond Value Chain Mitigation. This meant we could buy carbon credits for 100% tonne-for-tonne mitigation, achieving the VCMI Platinum standard. We contributed the rest of our budget to a Forests and Landscapes Impact Fund to contribute to natural restoration and rewilding projects around the world. Here [link] is a webpage which discloses the projects we supported and contains the receipts for our carbon credit retirements."
👉 Be humble - it’s okay to be a work in progress
Always acknowledge the context around your sustainability work. You might have made important progress, but there’s likely still work to be done. Make sure your audience understands the bigger picture and what you’re planning to do next.
For example:
"Last year, we made direct investments into renewable energy systems in our premises to bring down our scope 2 emissions. We know there's more to do, and next year we’ll be working with our highest-priority suppliers to support them in decarbonising and reducing our own scope 3 emissions. At the same time, we’d like to contribute to global net-zero goals, so we’ve invested over £5,000 in projects around the world and achieved VCMI Platinum status.
👉 Only make carbon neutrality claims if assured against ISO 14068-1
You cannot claim 'carbon neutrality' (or 'carbon negativity', or 'climate positivity') simply by measuring your emissions and offsetting them tonne-for-tonne. These terms have formal definitions, and you will be called out for greenwashing unless you have specifically complied with ISO 1406801.
👉 Only make net-zero claims if assured against SBTi’s Net-Zero Standard
‘Net-zero’ is another term with a formal definition. Almost no businesses can credibly claim net-zero as of 2025, because it requires them to have already achieved >90% emissions reductions, and offset the remainder of emissions using only durable carbon removal credits. So you probably can’t claim net-zero status just yet - but there are plenty of ways to work towards it.
Do the work - and then be proud of it!
When it comes to green claims, credibility is earned through action and transparency.
If you’re unsure what to say, focus first on what you’re doing. Measure your emissions. Set targets. Reduce what you can. Then fund high-quality climate solutions to address what’s left. Share it clearly – with the right level of detail – and update your audience as you progress.
When the next reporting period comes around, repeat the cycle. Plug in your updated emissions data, assess your progress, set new goals, and revise your Beyond Value Chain Mitigation (BVCM) strategy and budget accordingly. Sustainability teams that approach this as a living, iterative process are the ones best positioned to drive long-term impact.
Want help making credible green claims? Work with Ecologi
As the world of sustainability claims becomes increasingly complicated to navigate, finding the right sustainability partners is critical for two reasons. Firstly, the right partners help you allocate resources to meaningful, measurable climate action. And secondly, they also make it far easier to produce credible, trusted green claims.
Platforms like Ecologi help you reduce, and report on your carbon footprint in accordance with trusted methodologies, supporting your science-based targets, net-zero strategy, and regulatory compliance. Better data means better disclosures, helping you to safeguard your credibility on climate. At the same time, Ecologi can help you restore our planet, giving you more good news to report on.