EmpCo Directive: What marketers need to know about environmental claims
New EU rules are changing how brands can talk about sustainability. Here's what EmpCo means for marketing, social media and creative teams.
If you work in marketing, there’s a new acronym worth knowing. EmpCo. From 27th September, new rules will apply across the EU that change how brands are able to communicate environmental claims to consumers. The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (thankfully shortened to EmpCo) is designed to give consumers clearer, more reliable information and protection against greenwashing.
Whilst this may sound like one for the legal team, there’s plenty for marketers to be concerned about. EmpCo doesn’t just affect environmental commitments that are set in the footer of a corporate website. It reaches into the words, visuals and creatives we make every day.
Whilst this could mean more scrutiny, it could also end up being a good thing for the work.
What environmental claims are affected by EmpCo?
The obvious place to start is the copy.
Words such as “sustainable”, “green” and “eco-friendly” have become pretty familiar in marketing, and it can sometimes be all too easy to use them without thinking hard about what they actually mean.
The introduction of EmpCo changes that. Generic environmental claims like the above can't just be used without meeting the requirements behind them.
There are also specific restrictions around climate claims. For example, brands cannot claim that a product is “carbon-neutral” or “climate-neutral” simply because they’ve paid to offset the emissions associated with it elsewhere.
Big promises about the future also need something behind them. If “net zero by 2035” is going to appear in consumer comms, there needs to be a clear commitment that is verifiable, with a credible plan of getting there.
Essentially, if you’re going to say something is better for the planet, you need to be really clear about why.
How does EmpCo affect images and creative?
Forests, leaves, wind turbines and a liberal use of the colour green have been doing a huge amount of heavy lifting in sustainability comms for years.
None of these things is automatically a problem. The important thing is the overall impression the creative gives, and how prominent the environmental imagery is within it.
Take a car photographed in a green landscape. If the car is clearly the focus and the landscape is simply the setting, that’s very different from an image where the landscape dominates, and the car becomes secondary. The latter opens up more room for someone to interpret the image as saying something about the environmental credentials of the car, even if the supporting copy is about something completely different.
This makes still imagery particularly worth thinking about. With just a single frame, there is less context to explain what a particular setting or graphic device is being used.
Video can sometimes be more straightforward because there’s usually more story and content. A wider and complete story, multiple shots, voiceovers and on-screen text can make everything clearer around why a product is in a particular environment. The same principle applies though: marketers should consider what the finished piece communicates as a whole.
This means sign-off and planning on creative needs to go beyond “Is there an environmental claim in the copy?” and consider “What is someone actually going to take away from this?” The UK’s CMA Green Claims Code takes a similar approach to environmental claims, including how colours, images, logos and overall representations can influence what consumers take away.
What does EmpCo mean for social media marketing?
This is where things can get a little more confusing for marketers.
In an age where the clipping economy is booming, a final film can get cut into a Reel, a carefully worded claim can get squeezed onto a graphic, a caption can get shortened, or an asset can get adapted for another market. Before long, an important bit of context can disappear.
This makes EmpCo something the wider marketing team needs to understand, rather than something that sits with one person checking sustainability claims. Social teams, agencies, designers and creators all need to know which claims are approved, what sits behind them, and what can (and can’t) be changed when content is adapted.
With rules applying from 27th September, now is a good time for brands marketing into the EU to audit their environmental claims and, crucially, the evidence.
How should marketers prepare for the EmpCo Directive?
The first step is to understand where environmental claims are already being made. Carry out an audit of live and planned content across websites, social media, paid social, email, packaging and influencer content.
Don’t only search for “green” and “sustainable”; review claims such as “net zero by 2035” and “carbon-neutral”. Visuals should be part of the audit too, particularly where imagery or design could imply an environmental benefit that isn’t clearly explained.
Then work backwards from each claim to the evidence. What exactly are we claiming? What evidence supports it? If nobody can answer those questions, the claim needs another look before it appears in your content.
Do the same with creative. Review imagery and video in context and ask yourself what someone is likely going to take away from it. Is a picturesque and green landscape simply the setting, or is it prominent enough to suggest something about the product? Are environmental symbols, colours and images reinforcing a claim you can actually back up? The point of this isn’t to remove nature from creative, but to understand the role it is playing in the message.
Lastly, review the sign-off process. Environmental claims shouldn’t only be checked when a large sustainability campaign launches. They can appear in an Instagram caption, an earned Influencer video or on a website. Teams need a clear route for identifying and escalating them as part of everyday content production.
Does EmpCo apply in the UK?
As an EU directive, EmpCo does not directly apply to marketing aimed solely to an audience in Great Britain. However, that doesn’t mean UK-based marketers can simply ignore it. Brands selling and/or marketing products and services to consumers in EU countries need to consider the rules that apply in those individual markets, particularly where the same campaigns and creative are being spread across the UK and EU.
The UK has its own set of rules around environmental and sustainability claims. The Competition and Markets Authority's Green Claims Code explains how businesses should approach these claims under UK consumer protection law. This also includes the need for claims to be accurate and clear, whilst being backed up by evidence. Similar to the EmpCo directive.
For brands operating across both UK and EU markets, this means environmental claims need careful consideration regardless os the territory the content is showing up in.
EmpCo will inevitably lead to more scrutiny, but that doesn’t mean brands should say less about sustainability. It means replacing broad claims with specific, evidenced facts about what a brand is actually doing.
More work for marketers, perhaps. But potentially better marketing as a result.
Sources and further reading
This blog is intended as general guidance for marketers and does not constitute legal advice.
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