The proposal for a Directive on Green Claims has reached the European parliament.  The Finnish Forest Industries Federation calls for clarifications.

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The key objective of the Green Claims Proposal is to combat “greenwashing” and to enable consumers to contribute to accelerating the green transition by making informed purchasing decisions based on credible environmental claims and labels.

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The proposal sets out the minimum requirements on the substantiation and communication of voluntary environmental claims and environmental labelling in business-to-consumer (B2C) commercial practices. Furthermore, it aims to amend the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

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The Finnish Forest Industries Federation finds it essential to provide correct and transparent and science-based knowledge for the consumers to help them choose the most sustainable choices. We want to describe reliably about the environmental impacts towards carbon neutral circular economy.

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Standardized and third-party verified environmental certificates such as PEFC and FSC indicate well the sustainable origin of the products. They should be approved in the future as well.

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Some clarifications to proposal are needed. When defining different product categories, the rules for comparison of different product categories need to be clarified. Besides, the methods calculating the life-cycle environmental impacts of products need to be further developed. Also, the verification bodies should have sufficient knowledge about the life-cycle assessments to ensure the reliability of claims.

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The information requirements should be strictly relevant to the substantiation of the environmental claims. The confidentiality of the companies’ information needs to be ensured and the focus should be on the clear, fast, efficient, and uniform verification process.

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And finally – to avoid unnecessary red tape, it is important to secure consistency with other relevant EU legislations, namely with the Eco-design for Sustainable Products Regulation (ESPR), Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and The Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR).