The American Association of Advertising Agencies, better known within the industry as the 4A’s, has released a comprehensive guide to eco-friendly messaging that may allow marketers to better serve consumers who are increasingly interested in sustainability and environmental consciousness.

Backed by expert commentary from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Trade Commission and leading U.S. brands, the new “Greenwashing in Advertising” paper tackles both best practices to win brownie points with the public and must-know rules governing what advertising can tout about a product or brand’s environmental benefits.

“The goal of putting out the paper is not just for legal departments that are already aware of a lot of this,” says Alison Pepper, executive VP of government relations at the 4A’s and architect of the guide. “It’s to help agencies and brands realize that there actually are a lot of rules out there about what environmental claims you can make.”

Prior to the 4A’s publishing of “Greenwashing in Advertising,” which includes a complementary video series, Pepper says that environmental rules for marketers in the U.S. were “piecemeal”: a mix of federal and state regulations, different statutes for different products, and ever-changing guidance from a host of government agencies.

Foundational to marketers’ messaging in this space are the FTC Green Guides, a tome of rules first issued in the 1990s that spell out specifics on everything from non-toxic claims to “ecolabels” such as Energy Star to recycled content ratings. For example, if a product says it’s biodegradable, that means it must biodegrade completely within one year.

But a critical point to the one-stop-shop report is that the FTC is likely to revise its Green Guides soon—Pepper estimates the process will begin in the next six to 12 months—as many environmental stakeholders have been calling for updates in the years since the rules were last amended in 2012. 

“A decade is a long time to go by in this field,” Pepper says.

As for what might change in the FTC’s next Green Guides revision, Pepper believes there is a “clear frontrunner”: rules regarding carbon offsets and net-zero carbon emissions claims.

“In 2012, [the FTC] did actually talk about carbon offsets a little bit but it’s really, really limited,” she says, noting that research in the past decade has suggested “that these offsets aren’t always working as promised” and may not an adequate substitute for source-level reductions in emissions.

For the uninitiated, carbon offsets are when a company—typically a significant polluter—funds services that positively affect the earth, such as reforestation projects in the Amazon rainforest, with the goal of neutralizing its otherwise-harmful carbon footprint.

But many critics have claimed these offsets often under-deliver and fail to address key pollution issues, acting as a Band-Aid rather than as a solution.

“Greenwashing in Advertising” continues on to suggest that the FTC under the Biden Administration, in the face of skyrocketing and sometimes dubious environmental claims, may ramp up enforcement of its Green Guides regulations.

It also details to what extent BBB National Programs’ National Advertising Division reviews and enforces claims, including an uptick in what the paper calls “aspirational” environmental claims, as well as when it’s appropriate (and legal) to use ecolabels such as Energy Star, USDA Organic and the LEED Green Building Rating System.

B Corp certification, a cross-business ecolabel that also happens to be an environmentally compliant legal status in many states, is given special weight in the 4A’s report, with Pepper saying the ecolabel has been adopted by many brands and agencies alike as a genuine sign of being green. Ben & Jerry’s, Athleta and Patagonia are all B Corp certified.

“Since we started displaying our B Corp certification logo on our website and our materials over the past couple of years, it’s gone from clients saying what is a B Corp to clients saying ‘oh, wow, you guys are a B Corp that’s really neat, tell me more,’” Melissa Palmer, chief financial and operations officer at Rochester, N.Y.-based agency Butler/Till, says in the report.

The rigorous process that entails earning B Corp certification is just one of the dozens of ways that brands can place themselves on the right side of the conversation around climate change and environmental impact—something that consumers have been increasingly demanding.

“Sustainability is now being seen by companies and consumers as part of the reason you buy the brand, much like product superiority or the level of service the brand gives or the pricing,” consultant Jim Stengel, former chief marketer at Procter & Gamble, recently told Ad Age.

Last year, a study from Capgemini that’s cited in the 4A’s paper found that 79% of consumers have changed their purchasing behavior based on brand behaviors including environmental impact and social responsibility. This is more evident than ever as major companies including P&G, Unilever and L’Oréal have publicly pledged to reduce their eco-footprint, and more brands make the move to react to the United Nations’ recent “code red” assessment of humanity's fight against climate change.

The 4A’s comprehensive report and video series on environmental claims in advertising can be accessed on the group’s website.