Environmental awareness is growing in society and there seems to be no turning back given the current global crisis we are facing. It is worth remembering pioneers such as Rachel Carson with her Silent Spring or Erin Brockovich with her legal fight, which represented important milestones in the development of environmental thinking.

Unfortunately, this proactive attitude towards the environment is exploited in certain cases, unconsciously or consciously, by some brands or governments to position as ecological what is not really.

This attitude is what is known in English as greenwashing , which is translated into Spanish by different terms: eco-whitening, ecological whitening or green washing.

The role of the consumer

In the face of this unethical attitude, consumers can only protect themselves by providing more education. But this does not mean that the fight against this deception should fall solely on them, since the information is really abundant and sometimes presented in a very technical way.

Thus, complex environmental indicators can be introduced to the public, such as the formation of photooxidants (harmful reactive substances in the atmosphere) or eutrophication (excess nutrients in an aquatic system) expressed in very small normalized or dimensionless values, in the order of 10⁻¹² or 10⁻¹⁵ in relation to a specific geographical area. Thus, only experts will be able to interpret the real representativeness of the environmental impact of these numbers and indicators.

It is also possible to reduce some of the information, offering only data from the most favourable life cycle phases . For example, indicating on a product the environmental benefit of using recycled materials (positive effect), but ignoring transport from the antipodes or the consumption of heavy fuel oil (which have a negative effect on the environment).

The responsibility of the company

Ecolabels were created to try to help consumers identify those products that stood out in one or more environmental indicators.

Unfortunately, the current avalanche of products on offer – the Ecolabel Index website lists the characteristics of 456 ecolabels from 199 countries – is a mess that can be misleading when it comes to “eco-friendly washing and spinning”.

In fact, the European Union (EU) defined the European eco-label in 1992 in an attempt to harmonise the criteria of environmental relevance for each type of product (applicable to those manufactured in the EU and those imported from third countries), as well as to use a single logo that would allow for a common identification of organic products throughout the Union.

Unfortunately, food and medicines were left out of the scope of the legislation by higher-ranking Community directives. This has led to an explosion of voluntary eco-labels in these two sectors, especially for displaying the carbon footprint , which is related to the environmental category of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

The role of legislators

For all these reasons, there was no choice but to try to bring some order to this chaos so that producers and consumers have common rules of the game.

In March 2024, Directive 2024/825 of the European Parliament and of the Council was published on empowering consumers for the green transition through better protection against unfair practices and better information. Compliance has been set for 27 March 2026 at the latest, so this year is key for its implementation.

The axes on which this directive pivots are the following:

• Information. Generic environmental claims (climate neutrality, decarbonisation, etc.) or other misleading information (circularity, recyclability, etc.) that are not supported by accurate and transparent analysis will be prohibited.
• Ecolabels . Only sustainability labels based on certification systems established by public authorities will be accepted as an essential way to ensure their transparency and credibility.
• Warranty. Specific information must be provided regarding the durability and repairability of the product. In addition, for goods with digital elements, digital content and digital services, consumers must be informed about the period of time during which free software updates are available .

Although the current times seem somewhat bleak for achieving the objectives set out in the 2030 Agenda , experience shows that good ecological performance always results in good economic performance. It is a binomial that never fails and which allows innovation to be placed at the heart of sustainable development.

Author Bio: Gumersindo Feijoo Costa is Professor of Chemical Engineering. CRETUS Centre of Excellence of the CiGUS Network at the University of Santiago de Compostela