Two Sides has successfully challenged over 970 organisations that subject their customers to repeated greenwashing messages since its campaign launched in 2010.
Banks, telecom providers, utility companies and even governmental organisations are increasingly focused on switching their customers from paper to digital services to cut costs. Two Sides claims some customer communications attempt to mask these cost-saving efforts, justifying the switch with unfounded environmental marketing appeals.
Two Sides managing director Jonathan Tame said, ‘Not only are these greenwash claims in breach of established environmental marketing rules, but they are hugely damaging to an industry which has a solid and continually improving environmental record. Many of the organisations we engage are surprised to learn that European forests have actually been growing by 1,500 football pitches every day.’
Globally, the company has engaged over 2110 organisations making misleading statements about paper. So far, over 970 of them have removed such statements from their communications. The organisations were located throughout Europe, North and South America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
In Europe, to date, 630 companies have removed unsubstantiated claims about paper, including Lloyds Bank, RAC, Scottish Power, N Brown Group, HSBC, to name a few.
Mr Tame added, ‘It remains vital that greenwash is challenged to ensure that the industry’s great environmental record is recognised and that the livelihoods of thousands of industry employees, as well as print, paper and postage volumes, are not damaged by the spread of misleading and opportunistic greenwash marketing.’
Recent research in Europe, conducted by Two Sides and Censuswide in 2021, found that in Europe alone, greenwashing threatens the loss of €337 million of value annually to the paper, print and mailing industry.
