July 05, 2023
Greenwashing: Navigating the Risk
Authors:
- Peter Pears,
- Tim Baines,
- Sam Eastwood,
- Airlie Goodman,
- Musonda Kapotwe,
- James Taylor,
- Pavlina Chopova-Leprêtre,
- Dr. Patrick Scholl,
- Dr. Johannes Weichbrodt, LLM (King's College London),
- Marcel Hörauf,
- Luisa-Sophie Dany, LLM (Stellenbosch University),
- Teresa Gerhold-Kempf, LLM (King's College London),
- Henninger S. Bullock,
- David A. Carpenter,
- J. Paul Forrester,
- Mark G. Hanchet,
- Anna T. Pinedo,
- Luiz Gustavo Bezerra,
- Angie N. K. Chan,
- Francis K. W. Chen,
- Thomas Kollar,
- Alan H. Linning,
- Dion K. Y. Yu
Other Author Oliver Williams, Trainee Solicitor, London
The risk of an accusation of “greenwashing” is now an important concern for many companies. Greenwashing is an ill-defined concept but, nevertheless, is increasingly a source of litigation and regulatory scrutiny – with more of both expected. It carries with it reputational, regulatory and litigation risks for which companies should be prepared. Whilst the risks are always context specific – varying by jurisdiction, industry and product - there are common themes. Here, we take an in-depth look at those themes and make suggestions for how organisations can think about mitigating greenwashing risk.