Eco-promising: communicating the environmental credentials of your products and services
April 2008
Pop into any supermarket today and you can’t fail to be struck by the number of labels making claims about the social and environmental attributes of a range of different products. Organic, Fairtrade and FSC Certified - “eco-promises” are made about a range of issues in advertising, in store promotions and on products themselves.
For consumers this can be confusing. Which issues are most important? And which labels can they trust?
For companies the issue of communicating the social and environmental attributes of their products can be just as complicated. What issues should they be highlighting? How can they best communicate to consumers? And how can they ensure that eco-promises align with broader business objectives?
Forum for the Future has teamed up with Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), the global business membership organization that specializes in corporate responsibility, to answer these questions.
Our report, Eco-promising: communicating the environmental credentials of your products and services, provides an invaluable how-to guide and examples for companies wanting to make environmental claims about their products and services. The report also reviews the history of eco-promising and highlights the challenges facing companies in communicating their efforts – including the rising possibility of a consumer backlash due to confusion.
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