Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
Due to its high resource use and significant environmental impact, the textile industry has been designated as a priority sector for the EU's transition towards sustainability in the European Green Deal. The Green Claims Directive is one of the initiatives to address this sector's unsustainable structures. Earlier this year, the European Commission published its proposal for this Directive. This proposal has been published with the aim to combat greenwashing and eradicate misleading environmental messaging within EU markets. The Green Claims Directive (GCD) represents a crucial step, as it introduces the EU's first detailed set of rules governing how companies can market their environmental impacts and performance. These new requirements will prompt a significant transformation in how companies handle data related to their environmental performance and how they communicate about it regarding their products and services. In this blog, we will take you on a brief but concise tour of the EU Green Claims Directive, emphasising the vital role it can play in reshaping narratives within the EU textile sector.
According to a 2020 study by the Commission, a concerning 53.3% of environmental claims analysed within the EU were discovered to be vague, misleading, or lacking in evidence. Additionally, 40% of these claims were found to be unsubstantiated. The lack of standardised rules for companies making voluntary green claims has given rise to "greenwashing". As widely recognized today, greenwashing allows for misleading information to be presented to consumers. This creates an uneven playing field in the EU market and puts genuinely sustainable companies at a disadvantage. To overcome this phenomenon, the EU Commission proposed the GCD to prevent companies from making misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their products and services.
The proposal presented seeks to complement existing EU legislation such as the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive (UCPD) and its linked revision: the Commission’s proposal for Empowering Consumers in the Green Transition Directive. The latter proposal outlines substantiation standards for marketing messages and imposes obligations on environmental labels that brands can adopt to support their claims. In this context, the Green Claims Proposal aims to enhance the above-mentioned directive by specifying the methodologies and criteria that brands must adhere to when promoting their products and services as sustainable. This alignment between the two proposals will strengthen efforts to ensure accurate and transparent sustainability messaging in the market.
Upon the Directive's enactment, Member States would be granted 18 months to integrate the new requirements into their national laws. The actual application of these requirements may be contingent on the pace of EU negotiations regarding the final text. Hence, they could potentially come into effect as of 2026, or later.
The proposed Directive introduces new standards for substantiating, communicating, and verifying voluntary explicit environmental claims and environmental labelling schemes in the EU market. The following explains what the Directive proposed to include when referring to explicit claims.
To ensure consumers receive reliable, comparable, and verifiable environmental information on products, the Directive introduces key measures to tackle unsubstantiated explicit claims. In short, three key measures are included in the proposed Directive.
For further references to the specific requirements proposed for substantiation, communication, and verification of claims, please refer to the EU Proposal.
The new Directive is projected to have considerable effects on the textile industry and may call for substantial and expensive compliance measures. As previously discussed, the Directive aims to address companies' now unfounded green claims and will require robust scientific verification. Given that a considerable portion of the industry may lack the necessary instruments for solid environmental claims, compliance with the Directive's rules could be challenging.
To facilitate compliance, companies might consider aligning with other upcoming regulatory requirements, such as the Ecodesign for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR) and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive. By synergizing efforts, they could better prepare for the upcoming legislation.
The Proposal offers a chance to enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of environmental labels and claims, thus encouraging businesses in the textile industry to improve the environmental sustainability of their products and practices and phase out greenwashing practices. However, if not implemented correctly, some companies may opt to reduce or halt their environmental claims, leading to "green hushing."
As the Directive progresses through negotiations, companies in the textile industry should proactively assess how it will impact their operations, reflecting on their current evidence and communication practices related to environmental claims.
The Policy Hub – Circularity for Apparel and Footwear supports the efforts of the European Commission to set up the EU's first detailed set of rules on how companies must substantiate reliable, comparable, and verifiable claims about the environmental impact, aspect and performance of products and services they offer across the EU. For the Directive to be of most effect, concerns regarding legal uncertainty, market fragmentation, and green hushing need to be addressed. To ensure success, the Policy Hub suggests measures like a common method, simplified and harmonised verification processes, equal level-playing field, policy coherence, support for circular innovation, and EU guidance during implementation. Clear, actionable, and unambiguous rules are essential to guide the textile sector toward science-based environmental claims.
For a full read of our feedback, please refer to the submitted position paper.
