Archives: greenwashing

Guidance on Avoiding Greenwashing while Providing Input Down Under

While American businesses continue to wait for the update to the 2012 FTC Green Guides this draft Guidance from Down Under is the best checklist, we are aware of, for mitigating the risk of greenwashing claims.… Continue Reading

The Positive Side of Green Hushing: Averting Backlash and Enhancing Corporate Sustainability

By Stuart Kaplow on June 25, 2023 Posted in Environmental, ESG, greenwashing

Companies seeking to avert backlash through green hushing can ultimately contribute broadly to corporate sustainability if not repairing the planet.… Continue Reading

H&M Wins Dismissal of Greenwashing Lawsuit

By Stuart Kaplow on May 28, 2023 Posted in Codes and Regulations, ESG, Green Washing, greenwashing

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 Thing

By Stuart Kaplow on April 2, 2023 Posted in Environmental, ESG, Green Washing, greenwashing

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

FTC Seeks Public Input on Update to Green Guides for Environmental Claims

By Stuart Kaplow on December 18, 2022 Posted in Environmental, Federal, greenwashing

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

Green Hushing versus Confidentiality

By Stuart Kaplow on November 13, 2022 Posted in Environmental, ESG, greenwashing

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

FTC Says Updated Green Guides are Coming

By Stuart Kaplow on September 18, 2022 Posted in ESG, Federal, Green Washing, greenwashing

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

New Greenwashing Case is Troubling to Future of ESG

By Stuart Kaplow on July 24, 2022 Posted in greenwashing

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

Green Building Law Update

Environmental Law and Sustainability for Business