A False Sense of Security? Navigating Canada's Greenwashing Laws

There are many businesses that want to make a positive contribution to sustainability. At the same time, there are also many that would like to be perceived as doing so but would prefer not to do the required work, such as analyzing processes, collecting and reporting data, and making measurable changes to their sustainability strategies. According to recent research, there is a significant substantiation gap related to sustainability claims, in which more than 60% of CEOs believed they were on track to meet their sustainability goals, despite only 30% of them having allocated the required capital and resources necessary to do so.

The practice of not walking the sustainability talk is known as greenwashing, and Canada’s attempts to tackle it have prompted both support and criticism from businesses and consumers. A highly adversarial political environment in Canada and the United States has made sustainability a sensitive topic, and Canada’s solution is a series of amendments to existing greenwashing laws that have pleased almost no one.

The debate about Canada’s greenwashing rules also highlighted the concept of “greenhushing,” which is the idea that companies afraid of accusations of making inflated sustainability claims might be doing the work behind the scenes without speaking publicly about it.