New legislation on Communication. Are you ready?

The EU is talking about substantiating green claims. What does this actually mean?

2022 is the year, when guidelines around communication of products sold in Europe are becoming a reality based on targets of the EU Green Deal.

Together with Ohana Public Affairs Agency based in Brussels, GreenroomVoice hosted a series of workshops:

“Understanding Green Claiming”

This will help you as a brand and or marketer/PR agent to navigate the multitude new initiatives, policies and pilots launched by the European Commission.
You can also purchase the online course at any time, even when all the sessions are finished. We propose an email Q&A service to help you digest the material and give you customary advice how this will impact your business. The workshops run until April 2022 and are available as a package of five one hour sessions, including:

Update EU policy pipeline
17.09.2021- 10.00- 11.00 am/CET
Reporting: Sustainable Corporate Reporting and due diligence
15.10.2021- 10.00- 11.00 am/ CET
Product data: Digital product passport and Product Environmental Footprint
05.11.2021- 10.00- 11.00 am/ CET
Claims: product and empowering consumers, including EU pledge initiative
17.12.2021- 10.00-11.00 am/ CET
Latest EU updates & office hour (i.e. Q&A session / open mic)
April 2022- 10.00-11-00 am/CET- exact date TBA

This workshop series will give you an understanding on what is coming up, how this will impact the organisational structure of your company and the way you define your communication.

– You will receive professional advice and insight into the policies that are in the pipe-line and what this means for your business.
– You will have five recorded sessions and the PDF’s of the sessions for your reference.
– You will receive tips on how to get ready for the upcoming legislation.

Cost
600 € for non- GRV members
300 € for GRV members  (please use the code: GRVMEMBER to receive the discount)

If you are not available for all sessions you will receive the recordings.
We will always be available for further questions.

Please email us at hello@greenroomvoice.com, if you are interested in taking advantage of Series “Understanding Green Claiming”.

Your Trainer

Pascale Moreau has 13 years’ experience in public affairs in sectors as diverse as textiles, healthcare, and information and communication technologies. Her multifaceted experience has made her an expert in navigating the obstacles and opportunities involved in implementing sustainable development strategies and laws. Throughout her career, she has facilitated meetings with the aim of encouraging stakeholders to come together around common solutions.

In 2019, she founded Ohana Public Affairs, convinced of her ability to reconcile corporate interests and environmental concerns. Ohana is a boutique consultancy based in Brussels. Our mission is to help organisations develop medium and long-term sustainable development strategies reflecting the risks, opportunities and realities present in their markets.

Why should you engage this early in the process?

One of the major challenges societies around the globe are facing at present is how to ensure a rapid transition to a sustainable future.

Surveys show that consumers have the will to act more sustainably, but often don’t know how to do this. And they want to know what is the environmental footprint is of a product, a service, its brand and its company. And yes, some consumers are even willing to spend more for sustainability. But first they need to know and trust a product and service is truly more sustainable.

Companies can help them by making sure, that the right products, information and incentives are available.

The EU commission is working on five major initiatives concerning the green transition and recovery from the pandemic. In our upcoming sessions on “Understanding Green Claiming” you will get a deeper comprehension on these EU initiatives and how to position your business for the best possible alignment.

1. Sustainable Product Initiative

This initiative, which will revise the Ecodesign Directive and propose additional legislative measures as appropriate, aims to make products placed on the EU market more sustainable.

Consumers, the environment and the climate will benefit from products that are more durable, reusable, repairable, recyclable, and energy-efficient. Under this initiative, the EU plans on defining the framework to gather the relevant data to enable circularity: so-called Digital Product Passport. The initiative will also address the presence of harmful chemicals in products such as:

– electronics & ICT equipment
– textiles
– furniture
– steel, cement & chemicals

2. Strengthening the role of the consumer in the green transition

Helping consumers play their part in achieving a more sustainable economy (‘green’ transition) is a key goal of the EU consumer policy revision (the ‘consumer agenda’).

This initiative mainly aims to:

– ensure that consumers obtain reliable & useful information on products, e.g. on their lifespan and repair options
– prevent overstated environmental information (‘greenwashing’) and sale of products with a covertly shortened lifespan
– set minimum requirements for sustainability logos & labels

3. Initiative on substantiating green claims

Today it is difficult for consumers, companies and other market actors to make sense of the many environmental labels and initiatives on the environmental performance of products and companies. There are more than 200 environmental labels active in the EU, and more than 450 active worldwide; there are more than 80 widely used reporting initiatives and methods for carbon emissions only. Some of these methods and initiatives are reliable, some not; they are variable in the issues they cover.

Another issue is greenwashing – companies giving a false impression of their environmental impact or benefits. Greenwashing misleads market actors and does not give due advantage to those companies that are making the effort to green their products and activities. It ultimately leads to a less green economy.

To tackle this issue, the European Green Deal states “Companies making ‘green claims’ should substantiate these against a standard methodology to assess their impact on the environment”.

The 2020 Circular Economy action plan commits that “the Commission will also propose that companies substantiate their environmental claims using Product and Organisation Environmental Footprint methods.

More Information on the Initiative on substantiating green claims.

4. EU green consumption pledge

The European Union has committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. This will require determined efforts from everyone, including policy-makers, businesses, and of course consumers. In addition to and beyond its legislative work, the Commission seeks to support all actors to work towards reaching EU environmental goals.

Many companies undertake valuable efforts to improve the sustainability of their operations as well as of their products and services and to better support consumers in their wish to change their personal ecological footprint.

EU green consumption pledge is voluntary, so far five companies have joined, amongst them L’Oréal and Decathlon. More companies are expected to join the pledge before summer.

These five pledges will be piloted with those companies, to see how this works and how to role it out to a larger uptake.

– CO2 footprint of the organisation
– product CO2 footprint
– Commitment to improve (CE)
– How to raise awareness to consumers with out selling (f. ex. How to keep your cloths longer, where to recycle, how to repair, etc)
– Report on their actions- transparent towards any kind of sustainability report

5. Sustainable Corporate Reporting

EU rules require large companies to publish regular reports on the social and environmental impacts of their activities. This helps investors, civil society organisations, consumers, policy makers and other stakeholders to evaluate the non-financial performance of large companies and encourages these companies to develop a responsible approach to business. EU rules on non-financial reporting currently apply to large public-interest companies with more than 500 employees.

Practical Info & Summary

Update EU policy pipeline
17.09.2021- 10.00- 11.00 am/CET
Reporting: Sustainable Corporate Reporting and due diligence
15.10.2021- 10.00- 11.00 am/ CET
Product data: Digital product passport and Product Environmental Footprint
05.11.2021- 10.00- 11.00 am/ CET
Claims: product and empowering consumers, including EU pledge initiative
10.12.2021- 10.00-11.00 am/ CET
Latest EU updates & office hour (i.e. Q&A session / open mic)
17.12.2021- 10.00-11-00 am/CET

Cost
600 € for non- GRV members
300 € for GRV members  (please use the code: GRVMEMBER to receive the discount)

If you are not available for all sessions you will receive the recordings.
We will always be available for further questions.

Register NOW