After this blog was posted, on December 9, 2024, Letitia James, the Attorney General of the State of New York filed a Notice Of Appeal of her office’s loss described below, to the Supreme Court of the State of New York. On October 31, PepsiCo won a victory obtaining the complete dismissal with prejudice of … Continue Reading
A recent ruling from a federal appellate court is bringing new attention to claims of greenwashing including specifically that a business’s aspiration statements about environmental matters (e.g., “we will be net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040” or “we will use at least 50% recycled material in our packaging by 2030”) can be actionable. The … Continue Reading
A good primer on greenwashing, but more than a little scary when you consider this may portend plaintiffs’ lawyer television advertisements recruiting mass litigation greenwashing clients. … Continue Reading
As the world grapples with the urgent need for sustainable practices, the emergence of green bleaching adds a new layer of complexity to the conversation… Continue Reading
Marketing tactics of making false or misleading claims about a product or service's environmental benefits are greenwashing pure and simple .… Continue Reading
While American businesses continue to wait for the update to the 2012 FTC Green Guides this draft Guidance from Down Under is the best checklist, we are aware of, for mitigating the risk of greenwashing claims.… Continue Reading
Companies seeking to avert backlash through green hushing can ultimately contribute broadly to corporate sustainability if not repairing the planet.… Continue Reading
How courts will likely analyze the growing numbers of greenwashing claims, providing guardrails for companies and mitigating their risk.… Continue Reading
Executional greenwashing is a neologism characterizing the way in which a business promotes or executes an environmental initiative, rather than the actual environmental impact of the initiative.… Continue Reading
As we look back in this ‘year in review’ at our most read blog posts in 2022, at a time when many have emerged from 2 years of permacrisis to the highs of a future where ESG opportunities are accelerating. This blog is a microcosm of the issues we assist clients with daily in our … Continue Reading
The Federal Trade Commission announced last Wednesday that it is seeking public comment on updates and changes to the Green Guides for the Use of Environmental Claims. In an era when charges of greenwashing and green hushing are proliferating across social media while at the same time governments are mandating ESG including environmental disclosures by businesses, … Continue Reading
There is a new answer to the philosophical question, “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear, does it make a sound?” The answer has depended upon your definition of sound. If you define sound as our perceptions of vibrations that travel through air (vibrations from a falling tree), … Continue Reading
With allegations of greenwashing all but de rigueur, businesses should be on the alert for the soon to be released Federal Trade Commission’s updated Green Guides. This year companies are being publicly challenged and having their reputations tarnished for greenwashing, in some instances for deceptive misrepresentations, others for unintentionally misleading, and more often than not, … Continue Reading
On July 6, FossielVrij NL filed a greenwashing lawsuit in the Amsterdam District Court against Dutch airline KLM. The overseas litigation is troubling because at its core the theory of the case is apocalyptic environmentalism, the belief that unless humans drastically reduce consumption population growth and affluence will overwhelm our planet. In this instance that … Continue Reading