GREENWASHING: WHY ENVIRONMENTAL CLAIMS NEED LEGAL REGULATION

Walk into a supermarket today and we can see that the entire establishment has turned green. Shampoos promise to be planet-friendly, clothes belong to consciousness collections, packaging is made of 100% sustainable materials, and companies announce their plans to become carbon neutral someday in the distant future. Green has turned out to be a very profitable color. But what happens when the color is greener than the product? This is where greenwashing comes in. To put it simply, greenwashing occurs when organizations make unsubstantiated or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of their services, products, or operations. There is an element of lying, but usually, it is a shade less egregious, as it could just be a combination of vague statements, selective information disclosure, appealing green imagery, or climate-friendly pledges that do not have a concrete plan behind them .The issue with greenwashing is that it does not just create bad advertising; it could deter consumers from choosing genuinely climate-conscious options and reward unsustainable companies for their misleading claims.