Who can stop the greenwashing

Abstract

This chapter asks: Who can stop greenwashing? It uses the Norwegian Consumer Agency warning that the Higg Materials Sustainability Index (Higg MSI) tool in the form of a consumer-facing label could not be used in marketing in Norway to discuss this. The answer is that both the industry and consumer authorities can stop greenwashing, but only the authorities have the will to do so. In this case, critical journalism and research made important contributions to support the documentation of false green claims. Consumers don’t have the will nor the possibility to differentiate between greenwashing and other green claims and want the authorities to stop greenwashing.