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DECEPTIVE CLAIMS THAT exaggerate how environmentally friendly a product is, known as ‘greenwashing’, have made it difficult for consumers to identify genuine green products.
That’s according to new research by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) and the Enviornmental Protection Agency (EPA), that also found that consumers who are informed about greenwashing are better at identifying it.
The experiment by the research bodies echoes previous calls from the EU for better education around the environmental durability of products and suggests that companies that greenwash their products are spoiling the competition for real eco-friendly brands.
Previous analysis from the European Commission found that more than half of Enviornmental claims made in advertising in the EU were misleading, vague or unfounded.
The ESRI gathered 2,000 randomly-selected adults who judged a series of adverts that features real and greenwashed environmental claims and then completed a quiz on the marketing they had seen.
Half of the group recieved a crash course on the tactics of greenwashing before the exercise while the other half were not given any education around false environmental claims.
The results showed that those who were trained to spot greenwashing were more confident in their ability to do so when compared to the untrained group. The trained group also had a heightened scepticism over all claims, even when they were genuine.
Legislation, adopted by MEPs in January, aimed to put a stop to greenwashing in advertising. The new rules will ban products labelled ‘environmentally friendly’, ‘natural’, ‘climate-neutral’, ‘eco’ or ‘biodegradable’ without concrete evidence.
Claims based solely on the use of carbon off-setting will also be banned.
This week’s experiment revealed that consumers are less willing to purchase from brands they suspected of greenwashing, even if the environmental claim made by the brand was genuine, the ESRI said.
The trained group also said they would be more willing to engage in climate action, including using climate policies to inform their voting behaviour, such as the new EU rules.
Dr Shane Timmons, a researcher at the ESRI’s Behavioural Research Unit suggested that greenwashing is also impacting commercial competition.
“Greenwashing makes it difficult for genuinely sustainable businesses to compete against ones that mislead consumers about their environmental performance.”
Timmons suggested that if consumers were more educated about the false claims, greenwashing would be sooner eradicated. He called for the EU directives to be transposed, quickly, into Irish law.
Dr Eimear Cotter, Director of the EPA’s Office of Evidence and Assessment said greenwashing not only “undermines efforts to support consumers to make environmentally-friendly choices” but also causes confusion around real and genuine claims.
Dublin City Council needs to aggressively go after single tenants in mutli-bedroom houses. People given houses for their family 30 years ago – the kids have long moved out, but the parent is still hogging a 3 or 4 bed house. I’m sure DCC could make a huge impact to the “housing crisis” by making better use if their stock.
@Mick paisley: I have to agree to some point with you. Although you have every right to live in any house you want I work with the elderly and it’s a bit mad when you go to collect a 84 year old woman living in a 4 bed in the suberbs next to a young family. I for one would much rather be living in a smaller home at that age.
@Mick paisley: why not build more houses and vastly improve commuter public transport instead of making rich old ones homeless?
@Noj Nikrub: the comment from Mick is about socials who got their houses many years ago and now are single occupying it.
@Mick paisley: the UK actually seen this was an issue and did something.
Look up the ‘bedroom tax’ UK.
@Mick paisley: It isn’t easy to up sticks and move to another part of the city when you’ve spent most of your life in a certain area.
Usual song and dance sinn fein approach to something we already know so it looks like their actually doing something about housing. Strip it back and they have zero productive alternative to the problem. These little soundbites are great for hiding that fact though
@Alan: their solution is probably to tax Ireland’s elite on 35,000 a year plus , even further! The same elite on those kind of figures , that are sharing rooms in kip house shares !
Private property is just that-private. So it’s up to the owners to do what they see fit, such as leave empty, let go derilict or rent out to make the best return, currently Airbnb. Dcc failed to allow adequate housing be built over the last year’s then they take it out on property owners with the introduction of rent pressure zones. Why do local authorities block the division of two storey houses into 2 separate units ? It’s because planners with their heads up their culos believe they know best and Dictate to the rest of us, that needs to change.
@Bren Guiden: eh no Bren, property rights are not absolute and do not trump the common good. Its in the Constitution, feel free to go to the Supreme Court if you think otherwise
@Bren Guiden: So scrap the concept of planning permission?
@Bren Guiden: Yes there are property rights and people can do what they want within those rules, but the government can change that “free” market with tax and legislation. So what you’ve said is incorrect.
You invest in rental property you accept the investment risks including new legislation that may have a negative impact on your property.
In this case with so much new room stock coming through in the hotel market it’s in the greater interest to re-purpose this space to actual tenants
@Vin: The problem is that changes that appear to be in the general interest (of individual tenants) actually dissuade property investors from entering or remaining in the property market and over time this results in a lack of supply and increased rents and is to the detriment of tenants generally.
SF led DCC for 5 years and let all this fester
More nonsense from SF. Air bnbs are normally city center apartments that would be unsuitable/too expensive for most people.
Stop property owners from sitting on land/buildings in city center and aiming to make a gain in 10 years on dormant sites. Property tax should be based on the value of the land, not what sits on it. Landlords should receive tax breaks for fixing buildings but punished hugely for space on their land that is left derelict.
When planning permission is granted authorities should be insisting the purpose of the building. i.e rental/owner occupied.
Initiatives like this would do much to address the supply issue.
@Wreck Tangle: Apartments are housing. Housing should be used to house people, especially in times of chronic shortages. The fact that housing in our cities is “too expensive” is because of the shortage of property to rent or buy. Using apartments and houses as short term let’s for tourists exacerbates this issue. More supply = more choice= more affordable. Tourists should be in hotels or hostels , not homes.
@An bhearna:
Personally I disagree with air bnb but my point is that this is bluster and not a major source of the problems in Dublin and Ireland in general.
As you point out, this is an exacerbating factor. Removing air bnb is a good move but it is not address the property crisis. The properties will be rented to middle/high income earners and any impact would be short lived.
Ah, good old dcc! They won’t even given Ronan an extra two floors into the stump he’s building for sales force in the docklands! These absolute hypocrites are right up there at the top, when it comes to the blame for the housing crisis! Denying tens of thousands housing in central areas , to appease existing constituents. Surprised the haven’t adopted a “ to hell or Connaught “ mantra yet, they couldn’t care less about those desperate for housing or being robbed blind to pay for it! They are the biggest culprits in limiting supply!
@Shane Murphy: You’re supporting Ronan in trying to get extra floors to build multi million euro apartments in a vanity project. There wouldn’t be one single affordable or social dwelling in it. The application has no merit and is nothing more than a greedy attempt at overturning a well thought out and correct decision by using media campaigns to convince mugs like you that it’s done kind of panacea to the housing issue.
Try finding the form 15 under the new legislation! And with only 3 days to go before the legislation the form was for not even on Dublin City Council’s website. So now just simply key in “New Short Term Letting Regulations, Planning and Development (amendment) Regulations 2019″
Try finding the form 15 under the new legislation! And with only 3 days to go before the legislation the form was for not even on Dublin City Council’s website. So now just simply key in “New Short Term Letting Regulations, Planning and Development (amendment) Regulations 2019″
Try finding the form 15 under the new legislation! And with only 3 days to go before the legislation the form was for not even on Dublin City Council’s website. So now just simply key in “New Short Term Letting Regulations, Planning and Development (amendment) Regulations 2019″
Law is only in papers and big companies are still letting apt and houses as short let. Why city council didn’t check online there are so many companies still doing short let in Dublin.
Is this register available to the public? Is there a mechanism for people to report properties?
Try finding the form 15 under the new legislation! And with only 3 days to go before the legislation the form was for not even on Dublin City Council’s website. So now just simply key in “New Short Term Letting Regulations, Planning and Development (amendment) Regulations 2019″
Try finding the form 15 under the new legislation! And with only 3 days to go before the legislation the form was for not even on Dublin City Council’s website. So now just simply key in “New Short Term Letting Regulations, Planning and Development (amendment) Regulations 2019″
Try finding the form 15 under the new legislation! And with only 3 days to go before the legislation the form was for not even on Dublin City Council’s website. So now just simply key in “New Short Term Letting Regulations, Planning and Development (amendment) Regulations 2019″
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