The EU is proposing a new directive aimed at combating greenwashing by setting minimum criteria for companies making environmental claims about their products or services, as well as for environmental labeling programs.
The Draft Green Claims Directive, proposed March 22 by the European Commission, is part of the EU's Circular Economy Package and Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives aimed at making Europe climate-neutral by 2050.
The EU proposal applies to “green claims," which refers to any message or representation that states or implies that a product or company has a positive or no impact on the environment or is less damaging to the environment than other products or company.
The idea is that this will help ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information.
In theory, products with trusted seafood labels can be traced back through the supply chain to a sustainable source, helping to ease any concerns about mislabeling or fraud, as well as reassuring consumers that the products is sustainably produced.
In fact, there have been issues with eco-labels in recent years, even with best-in-class schemes such as the Marine Stewardship Council's (MSC) sustainability label, following the allegation that the labeling scheme allows a fishery to be certified before it has made conditional improvements in ecological performance to actually meet the standards for the label.
In the United States, there have been a number of class action lawsuits, including some filed by consumers of Conagra-owned Mrs. Paul's and Van de Kamps frozen fish and Bumble Bee's canned tuna, alleging they were harmed by the use of MSC eco-labeling on their products.
Consumers have brought similar deceptive marketing complaints against Gorton's, Cooke, Aldi and Mowi.
Out of those, Gorton's settled its lawsuit for an undisclosed amount. Mowi was forced to pay a hefty $1.3 million (€1 million) settlement and remove the terms "sustainable" and "eco-friendly" from some of its products.
Nevertheless, the commission’s aim to reduce greenwashing has the support of Richard Stobart, head of marketing at the MSC.
"This can only be a good thing and we welcome efforts to ensure eco-friendly claims made on products are legitimate, clear and substantiated," he told IntraFish.
"There has been a proliferation of sustainability claims on products. Eco-labels are important in providing consumers with an easy and trusted reference point to make an informed purchase decision. It is the job of robust, third-party certifiers to raise and maintain the bar on sustainability."
The public has high trust in MSC’s blue label, according to Stobart, who pointed to the organization's independent assessment of sustainable fishing practices.
“For anyone wanting to know more about MSC-certified fisheries or what our label represents, we publish fishery assessment reports, information about our assurance processes and standards on our website. When we review the MSC Fisheries Standard, this is a public process that welcomes wide-ranging consultation. Not all labels provide this level of transparency, credibility, or rigor," he said.
Another organization welcoming the initiative is Bloom, a non-profit founded in 2005 working to preserve the marine environment. The NGO has been extremely critical of the work of the MSC in the past.
"Since the first fishery was certified by MSC in 2000, they have consistently certified destructive fisheries (such as deep-sea bottom trawling, krill fisheries, FAD-associated tuna fisheries, etc.) while overwhelmingly communicating on low-impact fisheries such as handline or pot fishing," said Scientific Director Frederic Le Manach.
"This clearly qualifies as greenwashing, so seeing them welcoming this directive can only be seen as an absolute red light, showing that it will be ineffective. Publishing assessments has nothing to do with being credible."
Meanwhile, UK-based Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) has criticized fisheries and aquaculture certification groups for what it views as a failure to incorporate human rights considerations into its certifications, standards and ratings.
The proposal will be debated by the European Parliament and council before being adopted in its final form.
