FTC Issues Long-Awaited Version of Revised "Green Guides"
October 1, 2012

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has been working on revising its "Green Guides" since 2010 and today the commission announced that the revisions are now complete. The guide is designed to help marketers ensure that the claims they make about the environmental attributes of their products are truthful and non-deceptive.

The revisions to the FTC's Green Guides reflect a wide range of public input, including hundreds of consumer and industry comments on previously proposed revisions, according to the FTC. They include updates to the existing Guides, as well as new sections on the use of carbon offsets, "green" certifications and seals, and renewable energy and renewable materials claims.

"The introduction of environmentally friendly products into the marketplace is a win for consumers who want to purchase greener products and for producers who want to sell them," says FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. "But this win-win can only occur if marketers' claims are truthful and substantiated. The FTC's changes to the Green Guides will level the playing field for honest businesspeople and it is one reason why we had such broad support."

In revising the Green Guides, the FTC modified and clarified sections of the previous Guides and provided new guidance on environmental claims that were not common when the Guides were last reviewed.

For example, the Guides caution marketers not to make broad, unqualified claims that a product is "environmentally friendly" or "eco-friendly" because the FTC's consumer perception study confirms that such claims are likely to suggest that the product has specific and far-reaching environmental benefits. "Very few products, if any, have all the attributes consumers seem to perceive from such claims, making these claims nearly impossible to substantiate," says the FTC.

The Guides also advise marketers not to make an unqualified degradable claim for a solid waste product unless they can prove that the entire product or package will completely break down and return to nature within one year after customary disposal. The Guides further caution that items destined for landfills, incinerators or recycling facilities will not degrade within a year, so marketers should not make unqualified degradable claims for these items. The document also clarifies guidance on compostable, ozone, recyclable, recycled content and source-reduction claims.

In addition, the Guides contain new sections on: 1) certifications and seals of approval; 2) carbon offsets, 3) free-of claims, 4) non-toxic claims, 5) made with renewable energy claims, and 6) made with renewable materials claims.
Finally, the Guides do not address use of the terms "sustainable," "natural," and "organic."

The FTC says, "the Guides issued today take into account nearly 340 unique comments and more than 5,000 total comments received since the FTC released the proposed revised Guides in the fall of 2010. They also include information gathered from three public workshops and a study of how consumers perceive and understand environmental claims."

The FTC further clarifies that the Green Guides are not agency rules or regulations. Instead, they describe the types of environmental claims the FTC may or may not find deceptive under Section 5 of the FTC Act.