This document provides a checklist for companies to ensure the credibility of their green marketing claims. It addresses establishing values and sustainability practices, substantiating environmental claims, using third-party certifications, communicating transparency, and promoting responsible consumption. The checklist covers topics such as defining sustainability values, ensuring claims can be backed by evidence, selecting credible eco-labels, providing transparency in reporting, and encouraging proper product disposal.

1. HOWTO MAKE CREDIBLE GREEN MARKETING CLAIMS
34 · SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 ADVERTISING AGE
HAVE WE BUILT A FOUNDATION FOR EFFECTIVENESS?
■■ Have we defined our values and what sustainability
means to us?
■■ Are we walking our talk? Is a sustainability mindset firmly
embedded within our company’s culture, core values and
business strategy?
■■ Are we communicating our values to all stakeholders?
■■ Does our CEO openly believe in and support sustainability?
■■ Do our employees understand the key environmental and
sustainability issues affecting our business? Are they
empowered to act?
CAN WE FULLY SUBSTANTIATE OUR CLAIMS AND COMPLY
WITH THE FTC GREEN GUIDES AND OTHER REQUIREMENTS?
SETTING THE STAGE
■■ Are we building a fact base for our environmental market-
ing claims by evaluating our products’ and packages’ envi-
ronmental impact throughout their life cycle: raw materials,
manufacturing and production, distribution, marketing to
in-use, after-use and end-of-life management?
■■ Are we working with suppliers to understand environmen-
tal impacts throughout our products’ supply chains?
■■ Have we educated ourselves about various green marketing
pitfalls by consulting secondary literature, legal precedent
and reviewing past cases of the FTC and the NAD?
■■ Are we taking steps to educate all of our internal and
external personnel involved with making environmental
claims, e.g., our in-house and outside counsel, marketing,
advertising, communications, sustainability and environ-
mental staff and vendors, about the relevant terms that
affect our business within the environmental lexicon?
■■ Have we thoroughly assessed all of our current campaigns,
claims and use of brand names, package designs and
imagery (corporate graphics, seals, logos, etc.) to ensure they
follow the revised FTC Green Guides?
SUBSTANTIATING SPECIFIC ENVIRONMENTAL
MARKETING CLAIMS
■■ Do our specific claims involve a holistic understanding of
our products’ environmental and social impact and do
they avoid focusing solely on one or two environmental
attributes?
■■ Are we avoiding claims that are virtually impossible to sup-
port, such as general environmental marketing claims and
claims of biodegradability for products and packages that
wind up in landfills?
■■ Are we avoiding deceptive or misleading claims,
in other words:
■■ Are our claims meaningful, specific, complete and
without exaggeration?
■■ Are we being straightforward with type size,
proximity, etc.?
■■ Are we avoiding overstatement?
■■ Are we avoiding vague, trivial or irrelevant claims
that can create a false impression of a product’s envi-
ronmental benefits?
■■ Are we providing complete information?
■■ Have we obtained all necessary substantiation from
our suppliers for all claims that we make about their
materials, processes, etc.?
■■ If we are marketing products outside the U.S., are we com-
plying with legal requirements and guidelines provided by
other countries? Are we avoiding making contradictory
claims in different countries in order to maintain credibility?
Do our claims translate properly into foreign languages?
THIRD-PARTY SEALS AND ENDORSEMENTS
■■ Have we considered the use of credible certifications and
eco-labels issued by independent third parties including
government, industry associations and NGOs?
■■ In selecting the appropriate third-party labels, have we
considered the levels of awareness and purchase influ-
ence that exist among consumers for these labels?
■■ Are we providing the appropriate disclosures to our
certifications and eco-labels on product, packaging and/or
THEOTTMANCHECKLISTFORCREDIBLEGREENMARKETING
Use the following checklist as a summary of key points made in this report, as well as a practical
tool for use in ensuring the credibility of your green marketing claims and programs.
CONTINUED ON P. 35

2. ADVERTISING AGE SEPTEMBER 16, 2013 · 35
HOWTO MAKE CREDIBLE GREEN MARKETING CLAIMS
advertising? Are we making sure any supporting
information is available on a website?
■■ If there are no third-party standards and eco-labels in our
industry, are we taking advantage of opportunities to join
with industry peers to create a consensus-based standard
such as those of the American National Standards Institute
that could then be verified by third parties?
■■ Have we considered the use of an environmental product
declaration as an alternative to eco-labels, with the ability
to provide more detailed, LCA-type data or disclosure,
especially with institutional purchasers?
■■ Are we taking advantage of any opportunities to get
claims for which no standards exist certified by an inde-
pendent body?
■■ Are we disclosing our relationships with third parties,
including any certifiers or paid endorsements? Are we
following the FTC’s Endorsement and Testimonial guide-
lines (as well as the Green Guides)?
■■ What can we learn from reputable experts about the prop-
er use of terms not defined by the FTC Green Guides, such
as “natural,” “sustainable” and “water footprint.”
CORPORATE SELF-DECLARATIONS
■■ If we are using a corporate self-declaration, what is the
basis or standard upon which we are making the declara-
tion? Is it crystal-clear to consumers that our company or
organization has issued the self-declaration and not a
third party?
CAUSE-RELATED MARKETING
■■ Have we considered the benefits and risks of cause
marketing? Are we following best practices in promoting
transparency in our cause-marketing campaigns?
■■ Are we ensuring that cause marketing, just like green
marketing efforts in general, considers a holistic approach
to our brand?
■■ Are we focusing on causes and environmental benefits that
are most relevant to our brand?
ARE WE COMMUNICATING TRANSPARENTLY AND EFFECTIVELY
WITH OUR CONSUMERS AND RETAILERS?
TRANSPARENCY
■■ Are we providing all the information consumers and other
stakeholders seek to evaluate our brand’s environmental
benefits? Specifically, are we providing access to details of
products and corporate practices and actively reporting on
progress? Are we reporting the bad as well as the good?
■■ Are we making it easy for stakeholders to evaluate our cor-
porate environmental performance by following industry
CONTINUED FROM P. 35
SOURCE: J. OTTMAN CONSULTING, INC. USED WITH PERMISSION
guidelines such as those promulgated by the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI) to ensure consistency in reporting?
CONSUMERS
■■ How sophisticated are our consumers about common envi-
ronmental marketing terms? Are we avoiding the mistake of
assuming that our target audience knows more about envi-
ronmental issues affecting our products, the science behind
our products, etc. than they actually do?
■■ Have we tested the net takeaway of our messages and images
among consumers for comprehension and believability?
■■ Are we being prudent about using LCA as a marketing tool?
Are we fully aware of its shortcomings in this regard as well
as, relatedly, lack of consumer understanding about LCA
and how to interpret its results?
■■ When touting our products’ environmental benefits, are we
being transparent about those environmental and social
impacts not measured by LCA?
RETAILERS
■■ Do we understand what types of proof our retailers may
require in order to support our environmental-marketing
claims? Have we completed any required surveys? Have we
submitted our products for any required testing?
BE THOROUGH
■■ Are we prepared to address the environmental impact of our
marketing practices and materials? Beyond the common prac-
tices of using recycled paper and soybean inks, are we work-
ing to disclose the environmental impacts associated with our
print, broadcast and digital-marketing supply chains?
ARE WE PROMOTING RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION OF OUR
PRODUCTS THROUGHOUT THEIR LIFE CYCLE?
■■ Are we engaging our consumers in proper use of our prod-
ucts as well as in conserving resources in general, including
encouraging them to use only what is needed, and con-
sciously reducing waste?
■■ Are we making provisions to have our products dis-
posed of responsibly or returned for recycling, reuse,
remanufacturing or repair?
SHOULD WE SIMPLY FOCUS ON THE CONSUMER BENEFITS OUR
PRODUCTS PROVIDE?
■■ Have we considered opportunities to promote our products
by focusing on primary benefits either exclusively (and
thereby avoiding the use of environmental-marketing claims
altogether) or as a complement to environmental attributes?
For instance, are we addressing specific direct benefits of
our products to save money? Protect health?