1. GREEN GUIDES PROPOSED BY THE
FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION
USA’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has released its proposals to update the Guides for Use of
Environmental Marketing Claims (Green Guides or Guides). Given the rising awareness about
environmental issues among consumers, businesses have increased their focus on the way that they
impact the environment. Businesses have also become active and aggressive in communicating these
impacts and initiatives taken by them to reduce the impact on environment. With this background, the FTC
has made the decision to revamp the Guides that businesses use to validate the claims they make to
consumers. These rules have not been updated since 1998. As expected, the proposed version of the
Green Guides will force businesses to be stricter with the claims that they make regarding the
environmental impact of their products.
WHAT ARE THE GREEN GUIDES?
The FTC monitors marketing claims made to consumers to ensure that such claims are truthful and non-
deceptive. Since consumers have begun demanding and favouring products that are deemed
environmentally-friendly, the businesses have become more driven to market their products to get their
position across. It is FTC’s job to ensure that claims by product manufacturer/marketers are accurate and
substantiated. Through the Green Guides, the FTC also provided businesses and advertisers with general
principles they should follow in advertising to consumers, ways that consumers may perceive or
misperceive various marketing claims, and guidance to avoid making deceptive claims.
The older version of the Green Guides had 10 major focuses. These focuses included: general
environmental benefit claims, certifications and seals of approval, compostable claims, degradable claims,
“free of” and “non-toxic” claims, ozone-safe and ozone-friendly claims, recyclable claims, recycled content
claims, refillable claims, and source reduction claims. The proposed Green Guides include the areas listed
above and also cover marketing claims regarding carbon offsets, renewable energy claims, and renewable
materials claims. There are some minor, non-substantive changes to the Guides to increase readability, but
the major substantive changes are detailed below.
Of particular interest are the following additions to the Green Guides

2. CARBON OFFSETS
Carbon offsets are being included in the proposed Guide for the first time. The draft guideline requires that
marketers “employ competent and reliable scientific and accounting methods to properly quantify claimed
emission reductions and to ensure that they do not sell the same reduction more than one time.”
Additionally, any carbon offsets that represent emission reductions that will not occur for two or more years
must be prominently disclosed and no carbon offsets that represent reductions required by law may be
claimed.
RENEWABLE ENERGY CLAIMS
The proposed Guides include a section directing marketers to avoid claims that their products are made
“with renewable energy” if the product is made using fossil fuels. Additionally, the source(s) of the
renewable energy are required to be disclosed. The marketers who create their goods with renewable
energy, but then sell renewable energy certificates, may not claim that they use renewable energy where
such a claim will deceive consumers, due to double counting.
RENEWABLE MATERIALS CLAIMS
The proposed Guides include a section requiring marketers to avoid deceiving claims about “renewable
materials” so that it is clear what the materials are, where they came from, and why they are considered
renewable. Additionally, as with all other claims, any claim that a product is made with renewable materials
should be qualified if it is not entirely produced with such materials.
As can be seen from the tone, the Green Guides focus on avoiding consumer deception. The onus is on
marketers to substantiate and qualify claims to avoid deceiving consumers. The FTC is seeking public
comments on the proposed changes until December 10, 2010, after which it will begin finalizing the
Guides.
REFERENCE
1. Article by Arent Fox LLP at http://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=d4fee28e-13aa-4549-
8498-148bb49d7e1b&utm_source=Lexology+Daily+Newsfeed&utm_medium=HTML+email+-+Body+-
+Federal+section&utm_campaign=Lexology+subscriber+daily+feed&utm_content=Lexology+Daily+Ne
wsfeed+2010-10-13&utm_term=

3. ABOUT US
Agneya Carbon Ventures came into existence with the purpose of “To help our clients in understanding,
establishing sound Environment Management Systems, and pursuing sustainable business solutions
through our various services to abate direct and indirect impact on ecological balance.”
We have worked with companies across sectors enabling them to create carbon accounting, monitoring
and reporting systems. We have expertise in the areas of carbon accounting and management, energy
management systems, voluntary/compliance carbon markets, environment management and
sustainability and carbon branding.
To know more about us, please visit http://www.agenya.in
To schedule a meeting or a discussion with us, do reach us on
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