Sustainability Claims Research Articles

Greenwashing in ESG: Identifying and Addressing False Claims of Sustainability

Purpose: The study explores the growing issue of greenwashing in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) reporting, identifying common deceptive practices and their impact on stakeholders. Methodology: A mixed-method approach was used, including content analysis of sustainability reports and interviews with stakeholders across industries. This approach helped uncover the prevalence and nature of greenwashing tactics and evaluate their implications. Findings: Greenwashing remains a significant barrier to genuine corporate sustainability. Common tactics include selective disclosure, vague claims, and irrelevant assertions, which undermine ESG reporting credibility. The absence of stringent regulatory frameworks and third-party verification exacerbates these practices, leading to eroded stakeholder trust, distorted investment decisions, and hindered consumer awareness. Findings also highlight the sectoral variance in greenwashing tactics and emphasize the need for stricter regulatory measures. Unique Contribution to Theory, Policy, and Practice: The research contributes to the ESG field by identifying actionable solutions for curbing greenwashing, including regulatory reforms, mandatory third-party audits, and the adoption of technologies such as blockchain for ESG verification. The study underscores the importance of transparent ESG reporting in fostering trust, enabling informed decisions, and advancing global sustainability goals.

Beyond Green Promises: How Concrete Information Sparks Pride and Drives Sustainable Fashion

This study examines the relationship between trust and pride and their collective influence on sustainable consumption within the fashion industry. We hypothesized that concrete marketing communications would enhance consumer trust, which in turn would directly, and indirectly via increased pride, encourage sustainable consumption intentions. Through an experimental design involving 199 participants, we tested the effects of concrete versus abstract sustainability claims on trust, pride, and sustainable consumption intentions such as word-of-mouth endorsement and the willingness to buy sustainable products. Our findings show concrete (as opposed to abstract) marketing information significantly strengthen trust, and that trust directly encourage sustainable consumption intentions and indirectly promotes them by boosting pride. This dual pathway underscores the crucial role of trust in sustainable fashion marketing, serving as both a direct motivator of consumption intentions and a catalyst for generating pride. Our study offers valuable insights for marketers on effectively communicating sustainability and fostering genuine consumer engagement with sustainable fashion.

A Meta-Indicator for the Assessment of Misleading Sustainability Claims

In order to address environmental and climate change in a sustainable manner, it is necessary for corporations to make commitments in accordance with sustainable principles, which can be communicated through the use of indicators. Many indicator-based sustainability assessments neglect the supply chain stages by reporting results with incomplete and misleading information. Indicators are sometimes manipulated to the benefit of companies, a strategy known as “greenwashing”. One method of misleading is to transfer the non-sustainable activities of one company to other related companies. With such practices, the question of how to measure sustainability remains unclear. This paper proposes and defines the sustainability meta-indicator (SmI) which can serve as a tool for the assessment of misleading sustainability claims. Its value depends on the sustainability indicators of the other collaborating companies where the company in question pays money, and the corresponding amount of paid money. The results of using SmI on synthetic data demonstrate that the proposed meta-indicator facilitates the evaluation of misleading sustainability claims. The aim of the SmI is to satisfy consumers’ need for information about the sustainability of a company’s products or services. In addition, it can be used as a communication mechanism to enhance the value of companies and support new partnerships and business strategies. For policymakers, this meta-indicator serves as a tool to support measures against misinformation and misleading consumers.

Renewable Ruse: Bioenergy Development in North Carolina’s Coastal Plains

Rural communities in eastern North Carolina are responding to the emergence of bioenergy development as an extension of environmental injustices, rather than sustainable solutions to climate change as presented by state and industry actors. We examine how biomass and biogas development entrench logics of extraction, rather than transition, as they are built as extensions of pre-existing concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in a landscape prone to climatic fluctuations. Using a polyvocal approach to knowledge co-production that builds from multi-year collaborative ethnography, the co-authored text demonstrates a commitment to the value of environmental justice (EJ) leaders’ knowledge—to advance environmental analytics. We argue that despite its claims, bioenergy operates as a ruse of renewable energy: it is a technological sleight of hand, that deepens rather than mitigates exposure to socio-ecological harm. Discursively hinged to sustainability claims, biomass and biogas attempt to signify a temporal, moral, and technological breakaway toward a different kind of techno-social future when, in fact, there is no real rupture from the well-established export-driven, extractivist logics of production.

Life cycle assessment of coir fiber-reinforced composites for automotive applications

Past decades have seen an increasing prevalence of natural fiber-reinforced composites (NFRCs) due to growing conscientiousness around sustainability and a push towards vehicle lightweighting. The environmentally friendly and sustainable claims of NFRCs need to be validated due to their large variability and variety, particularly where material substitutions are concerned, such as in substituting glass fiber with natural fiber. The objective of this work is to determine the cumulative energy demand (CED) and greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) associated with an automotive part (of volume 0.001 m3) made from 40 wt% coir fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PP) and compared with a similar part made from 40 wt% glass fiber reinforced PP. SimaPro v. 9.0.0.49 was used for the analysis, whereas inventory data were collected from databases, such as Ecoinvent 3, Transportation Energy Databook, Greet model 2022, and published papers. The results showed that CED and GHG associated with the coir fiber-reinforced composite part were lower than the glass fiber-reinforced composite part for both cradle-to-gate (∼34-40%) and cradle-to-grave (excluding end-of-life) (∼24%) analysis.

Combating Greenwashing of Construction Products in New Zealand and Australia: A Critical Analysis of Environmental Product Declarations

The construction industry’s increasing environmental impact has led to the widespread adoption of sustainability claims, yet the prevalence of greenwashing—where organizations make misleading environmental claims—threatens genuine sustainable development efforts. Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) have emerged as a potential solution, particularly in the New Zealand and Australia construction sectors, where recent government climate regulations have accelerated their adoption. However, the effectiveness of EPDs in combating greenwashing and their practical implementation remain understudied. This research addresses this gap through a comprehensive analysis of EPDs in construction, employing a systematic literature review of 82 articles from 2010 to 2024 across major databases. Using ATLAS.ti 9 software, this study makes three key contributions: (1) develops a novel framework for evaluating EPD programs and their effectiveness in preventing greenwashing, (2) establishes a standardized methodology for assessing the completeness and accuracy of life cycle assessment information in EPDs, and (3) provides evidence-based recommendations for improving EPD implementation in the construction industry. The findings reveal critical shortcomings in current EPD practices, including inconsistent assessment methodologies and incomplete life cycle data. This study proposes specific reforms to enhance EPD reliability and transparency, offering practical guidelines for industry stakeholders to verify environmental claims. These contributions advance both the theoretical understanding of environmental certification systems and practical implementation of sustainable construction practices by developing regulatory frameworks.

A classification scheme for urban agriculture combining technical properties with characteristics related to the economic and social sustainability

Urban agriculture is often associated with sustainable agricultural practices. However, the variety of systems qualifying as urban agriculture and the limited information available about their sustainability question this direct relationship. To better understand differences in intra-urban agriculture systems and their sustainability, this paper proposed an holistic classification of urban agricultural systems and collected knowledge about the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of these systems. Such a classification is important to evaluate sustainability claims on urban agricultural systems, anticipate potential sustainability trade-offs between urban agricultural systems and propose preventive measures to address these, and ultimately guide the sustainable deployment of these systems. Compared with existing classifications, the novel classification scheme proposed here accounts for technological, social and economic characteristics of urban agriculture systems to better distinguish between all systems. It was built on 91 scientific papers. The economic intensity of production was, for example, an important characteristic to coherently group urban agriculture systems. The intensity of cooperation between all actors was another characteristic emphasized for certain urban agriculture systems. One end of the classification scheme describes ground-based open, socially motivated urban agriculture systems with high cooperation intensity and low production intensity. The other end of the classification scheme describes building-integrated quasi-closed systems with high production intensity. In between, we find: building-integrated conditioned systems, ground-based conditioned systems, and building-integrated open systems. Mapping sustainability claims from literature in the classification scheme supported its definition along the three characteristics. For example, urban farming was associated with job creation, food safety, water savings, and higher yields while urban gardening with educational potentials, biodiversity improvements, and lower yields. Their display in the classification scheme was therefore supported. To further support the use of the proposed scheme, additional quantitative research to better understand and quantify the sustainability of urban agriculture systems is required.

Smallholder RSPO certification, economic benefits and agrochemical use

Abstract Sustainability standards, such as the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), can potentially mitigate the trade-offs between economic benefits and environmental harm of oil palm expansion. Using unique primary household and farm level panel data collected from Jambi Province, Indonesia, we first document the differences in agricultural inputs and outputs between certified and non-certified smallholder farmers. Second, we illustrate the potential implications and mechanisms of certification. In this study, therefore, we aim to first document agricultural input and output differences between certified and non-certified smallholder farmers, second to illustrate potential effects of certification with observational data and third to provide guidance for future rigorous causal analyses. We find generally positive correlations between RSPO certification, land productivity, profits, and fertilizer use, and a negative correlation with toxic herbicide use. However, we do not find price premiums for RSPO-certified farmers. Overall, the results of this study are indicative of potentially modest effects of RSPO-certification that may operate through higher productivity due to improved management practices that remain agrochemical intensive but avoid some particularly harmful chemicals. Our findings are relevant to better understand the strong sustainability claims of RSPO marketing and to provide guidance for rigorous causal experimental and quasi-experimental studies.

Understanding consumer perception of a new product including apple pomace: The role of health, sustainability, and culinary engagement

The aim of the present study was to determine perception of a new product made with apple pomace including consumers from three different gastronomy cultures: Spain (Mediterranean), Poland (Central Europe), and Denmark (Nordic). The new product was mainly made from potato and apple pomace and had the typical texture of a savory snack (crisp-like), but it was characterized by its apple/sweet taste. Besides consumers from the aforementioned countries, a group of Foodies-consumers from 20 different nationalities participated in the study to determine potential differences on the product perception due to their high culinary knowledge/ingredients exposure. Over 600 consumers participated in the study. To segments consumers into different groups beyond nationality, the demographic questionnaire included the short version of the Food Choice Questionnaire, the Food Neophobia Scale, and questions on Dietary and Sustainability related habits. The hedonic response, as well as the intrinsic properties of the product (sweetness, sourness, saltiness, apple flavor, hardness, and crunchiness) were measured using Just-About-Right scales. Additional questions included assessment on the storytelling of the product, potential applications/consumption moments, and finally, the impact of adding a health (high in fiber) or a sustainable (made using by-products) claim. Analysis revealed variations in demographics across consumer groups, potentially influencing their perception of the new product. Including the question on applications/consumption moments of the new food, as well as gathering free words about the main aspects consumers valued about the food, were useful to better understand its potential in the market and design a proper communication strategy.

Digital sustainability tracing in smallholder context: Ex-ante insights from the Peruvian cocoa supply chain

Global demand for sustainable agri-food products creates opportunities for smallholder farmers. But on-farm verification of sustainable practices is costly, making third-party certification inaccessible to many poor farmers. Digital technologies for tracing agri-food products from farm to fork could help: novel traceability systems, based on blockchain technology, can make data about on-farm practices transparently available to downstream stakeholders, enabling them to verify sustainability claims without external audits. There is limited understanding, however, of how such digital tracing systems fit local needs and capacities in smallholder contexts. Through a grounded theory approach, we explore the potential of digital traceability for sustainability monitoring in a case study in the Ucayali region of Peru. Based on interviews with local cocoa sector stakeholders, we identify two major challenges: first, setting up digital traceability systems requires investments that do not seem justified by corresponding increases in income. And second, relying on farmer-supplied data creates the risk of inaccurate information due to insufficient capacity as well as incentives for providing distorted data. Our findings suggest that strong cooperation along the supply chain is needed to ensure adequate return on farmer-side costs and investments. Focusing on sustainability metrics at the community level, in addition to the farm level, may be promising, as these metrics can be reliably collected by external stakeholders and add value beyond existing third-party certification standards. Our case study provides recommendations for local policy makers and supply chain stakeholders to develop inclusive digital sustainability tracing systems with smallholder farmers.

Addressing the Lemons Problem in Environmental Sustainability:Greenwashing and E-Waste Challenges in African Markets

The "lemons problem," as conceptualized by Akerlof in 1970, depicts the adverse effects of information asymmetry in markets wherein sellers are more informed than buyers, consequently causing the leakage of low-quality commodities. This paper explains how this phenomenon plays out in an environmental sense more specifically, through the disguise of greenwashing and e-waste overflowing into African nations. False claims of sustainability by company’s dupe customers and lead to environmental degradation. The agriculture and energysectors are put under the scanner, showing the damage done by monoculture practices and the fraudulent promotion of genetically modified organisms. The importation of electronic waste and used vehicles into Africa serves to underscore the serious health and environmental implications of such exploitation. To answer this, there is the need to first introduce the EPR model where the responsibility of dealing with waste management will be passed to the producers who will be forced to be responsible and sustainable.

The combined (non)impact of self-declared sustainability claims and business performance ratings on customer intentions

Businesses often make claims about their sustainability credentials that are not independently certified. Although these internal (i.e., originating from the business) signals are generally considered suboptimal, does their influence depend on how customers weigh them against external (i.e., originating from other sources) signals about the past performance of the business? Our research examines the separate and combined impact of self-declared sustainability claims (i.e., internal signal) and aggregated performance ratings (i.e., external signal) on customers. A scenario-based experiment showed that both self-declared sustainability claims and performance ratings independently increase customers’ intention to visit a hotel or restaurant. However, we found no evidence for an interaction effect – i.e., the combination of the two signals appears to have no effect on customers. To gain a deeper understanding, we conducted a qualitative study, which revealed mixed and paradoxical perceptions among customers. While the two signals are perceived to be distinct (communicating different attributes) and even dissonant (communicating opposing attributes), they are also perceived to mutually influence one another in that a high (vs. low) performance rating reflects positively on a self-declared sustainability claim, and vice versa. Subsequently, we discuss managerial strategies for communicating sustainability credentials vis-à-vis the overall performance of the business.

Green Branding in Fast Fashion: Examining the Impact of Social Sustainability Claims on Consumer Behavior and Brand Perception

Green Branding in Fast Fashion: Examining the Impact of Social Sustainability Claims on Consumer Behavior and Brand Perception

Opportunities and challenges of hybrid meat products: a viewpoint article

SummaryHybrid foods are made by blending animal‐based and plant‐based ingredients to make food products that are similar to the 100% animal‐based ones. Examples include hybrid meat products such as burgers or minced meat with vegetables or more recently hybrid dairy products such as cheddar cheese with oats. While hybrid meat products have been launched in several countries by both retailers and foodservice outlets, there are very few examples of hybrid meat products still available in the market, such as hybrid nuggets targeting children and hybrid minced meat products. This short viewpoint article covers some of the possible reasons this might be happening, presents examples of successful hybrid food products, discusses the importance of sustainability claims and the potential of hybrid meals.

Implementation of sustainability activities in food retail chains

PurposeThis study aims to examine the implementation of sustainability activities in food retail chains operating in the Czech market and discusses the specific activities that influence their implementation.Design/methodology/approachUsing the neo-institutional theory as a framework, the research employs qualitative content analysis with an explanatory and inductive approach based on the stratification of data collected by multiple-round, personal, face-to-face interviews by the researchers with managers of the Czech headquarters of multinational food retail chains.FindingsThere is lively development in activities in the fields of the environment and social welfare, while the activities in governance and economic resilience are more stabilised. To remain ahead of the competition, retail chains aim to implement and communicate as many activities as possible where at least some links to sustainability can be found. A lack of benchmarks and clear definitions reduce the ability to determine their degree of engagement. Thus, market actors are inundated with sustainability claims leading to inflation of the concept, while significant achievements are drowned.Originality/valueThis paper, based on empirical research, contributes to the current literature by showing inflation of the sustainability concept as one of the key effects of retail-chain competition. In this context, it also strengthens previous findings on the profitability motive behind sustainability activities. Moreover, we have developed our own stratification method, enabling differentiation between activities getting the most attention due to their progressive phase and those where development is in the background.

Sustainability assessments of commercial urban agriculture – a scoping review

The field of urban agriculture has seen an increase in development and attention in recent years, with a large share of literature addressing whether urban agriculture may pose a solution for food insecurity and combat environmental impacts. However, few studies have examined the many sustainability claims of urban agriculture systems, especially for urban farms intended for larger output and commercial ends. In this study, we analyze sustainability assessments of urban agriculture for commercial implementation. We do this by exploring the methods employed for conducting sustainability analyses, outlining the different urban agriculture cultivation systems, analyzing which sustainability aspects are considered, looking into what the sustainability analyses conclude, and studying how authors anticipate the knowledge gained from their sustainability assessments can be used. Environmental aspects of sustainability were more often assessed than other sustainability aspects, and LCA research practice was used for the majority of environmental assessments. Some studies compared the environmental benefits of different types of urban agriculture systems, but this was not conclusive overall as to what systems would be more environmentally beneficial. This suggests that urban agriculture’s sustainability cannot be universally categorized but should be assessed in relation to specific environmental conditions and urban contexts. Future research should aim to develop more nuanced frameworks for evaluating the environmental, social, economic and governance impacts of urban agriculture.

The political ecologies of "green" extractivism(s): An introduction

What is so-called 'green' extractivism and where did it come from? The introduction to this Special Section examines the origins and implications of the concept, linking it to a long history of exploitation, dispossession and (neo)colonialism under the guise of green-washing notions such as 'sustainable development.' Conducting an in-depth literature review, we first revisit the concept of extractivism, exploring its origins, development and analytical purchase. We link extractivism to 'extra-action,' implying taking more than what is viable for ecosystems and argue for a supply-web oriented, rather than a point of extraction-focused understanding. Subsequently, we examine key theoretical frameworks in political ecology that paved the way to the study of 'green' extractivism, notably Ecological Distribution Conflicts (which we argue could better be labeled Ecological Destruction Conflicts) and green grabbing. Based on this, we discuss the core features of green extractivism, which are twofold: (1) the use of socioecological and climate crises to reinforce existing or generate new markets and profit-generation opportunities; and (2) the mobilization of claims of ecological sustainability and 'carbon neutrality' to legitimize and rationalize extraction. After outlining the Special Section contributions, we end by considering gaps in existing scholarship on green extractivism and suggest ways forward.

Signaling sustainability: Do Canadian consumers prefer broad or narrow food sustainability labels?

AbstractSustainability labeling has been increasingly integrated into many food product labels in response to consumer interest in purchasing sustainably produced food. While a product label may contain the phrase “sustainably produced”, little additional information is available to consumers regarding how sustainability has been enhanced, or the dimensions of sustainability encompassed by the label. Using data from a survey of 1416 Canadian consumers, we examine consumer perceptions of sustainability and preferences for broad versus narrow sustainability claims across several contexts, including the dimensions of sustainability and the scope of a sustainability standard with respect to compliance criteria, product coverage, and geographical coverage. We find low levels of consumer knowledge and understanding of sustainability labeling, heterogeneity with respect to which dimension of sustainability appeals to different types of consumers, and a general preference for broad over narrowly defined sustainability labels, particularly with respect to the scope of criteria encompassed by the label. Our findings suggest some confusion as to what constitutes sustainability in the context of agri‐food, but that broader, more encompassing labels are likely to gain more traction with consumers.

Site Level Geospatial Analysis for Intensity Index of Gold and Copper Mining: Impact on Biodiversity and the Potential for Blockchain Integration

Large-scale and small-scale metal mining operations may not have been considered in the past as big threats to the observed local to global biodiversity pressure, but their zones of influences may adversely change species habitats, directly, indirectly, at local and regional scales. In this study, the intensity index on biodiversity is generated from mining gold and copper in Itogon and Tuba areas in the Philippines. These two areas are located in Northern Luzon with high base metal concentration in porphyry veins deposits with a host of biodiversity due to the distinct biogeographic, altitudinal gradient and climate. The endemic and threatened flora Nepenthes Bellii K. Kondo, Shorea polysperma, Pterocarpus indicus Willd and Lilium philippinense Baker within three mining sites indicated as X, Y, Z are used as species under threat and with multiple variable summation of their geospatial pattern of occurrences and by using by Python Programing Language to compute the Mining Factors (MF) from the Mines Annual Production and Percentage Grades, thereafter, the MF is multiply by the Biodiversity Factor (BDF) which is define as the product of the mines Area Factors (AF) and Protected Area Factor, and the values obtained are divided by Fibonacci Extinction Factor; which is the species Area of Occupancy(AOO) divided by the Extent of Occurrence(EOO) raised to the power of the corresponding Fibonacci Number. The final output is multiplied by the Potential Ecological Risk Indexes from the Heavy metals released from the mines. FEF is generated from QGIS geospatial analysis and the IUCN biodiversity Red List Category that finally yields the MintBio index. MintBio index values generated are subjected to linear regression analysis using Microsoft Excel data analysis tool to test the statistical significance. The MintBio indexes obtained are independent of mining scales or MF but depend heavily on the FEF and AF suggesting that MintBio as a model could serve as an attribution and intensity index to quantifying mining pressure on the ecosystem and species diversity that are often ignore using only biodiversity proxies such as trees cover and protected area. The value of the MintBio obtained in this study ranges from 686.756 of mine Z to 33,614,780.60 of mine Y indicating vast differences that were captured due to the higher threat of mine Y to the endemic and threatened species within 5km from the mine center. The inclusion of conservation factors to the index would further increase such sensitivity for a better evaluation and such would create the opportunity for incentives for mines operating responsibly and with high conservation tract records. MintBio is a potential model to improve policy targets in biodiversity monitoring, impact verification, corporate and environmental management in eco-designs, eco-labelling for huge metal consumption industries and would foster validation of sustainability claims regarding mining if integrated into blockchain as solution framework for proof-of-zero impact to biodiversity supply chain and international financing standardization for metals trade impact index options from mines in the Philippines and those across the globe.

Comparative Life Cycle Assessment on fuel types for a Formula 1 engine in Belgian Grand Prix

Formula 1 racing, known for its speed and innovation, faces an increasingly urgent need to address environmental concerns. This study investigates the environmental impacts of various fuel types used in Formula 1, aiming to bridge a critical gap in the automotive industry's perception of sustainability. With sustainability at the forefront, we conducted a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of different fuel types, including Gasoline, E5, E10, and E85, specifically analyzing their effects during the Belgian Grand Prix race. Through a thorough literature review and careful scoping, we sought to provide valuable insights into the environmental performance of these fuels in the context of high-performance racing. Our findings reveal a stark contrast between marketed sustainability claims and actual environmental impacts. Contrary to expectations, our analysis demonstrates that E85, often advertised as a sustainable alternative, exhibits the highest emissions across various environmental indicators. Specifically, E85 showed the highest impacts on water consumption, fine particulate matter, ozone formation, and human health. These results carry profound implications for the automotive industry, highlighting the importance of informed decision-making in fuel selection within the racing industry. By prompting further discussions on sustainable practices in motorsports, our study urges stakeholders to reevaluate fuel choices and embrace environmentally responsible alternatives.