Unilever under fire for greenwashing

The Dutch Consumentenbond (Consumers’ Association) accuses Unilever of blatant greenwashing: more than half of the 450 examined products contain misleading sustainability claims.

Big brands perform the worst

The worst-performing brands under the Unilever umbrella are Unox (104 products) and Knorr (95). Lipton (21), Calvé (12), Ola (10), and Hellmann’s (5) also were not faultless – only Ben & Jerry’s, De Vegetarische Slager, and Hertog IJs were not caught making any mistakes.

The organisation states that claims such as “grown sustainably” are too general and therefore misleading. Moreover, the multinational uses self-invented logos that resemble official certification marks: this also raises questions about their sustainability, it says.

The end is nigh

In response, Unilever insists that its sustainability claims are based on its own standards and recognised international certifications. The company claims that changes are being implemented ‘gradually’ to prevent waste.

Next year, the ‘Empowering Consumers Directive’ will come into effect: that set of EU rules will prohibit the use of self-created sustainability logos. Only independent parties will then be allowed to grant certifications, in the fight against greenwashing. This is how the European Union aims to protect consumer confidence in sustainability claims and sustainability logos.