Businesses shouldn’t be scared off by greenwashing regulation: AANA’s Josh Faulks
Regulators clamping down on greenwashing claims has seen consumers become increasingly skeptical of companies’ claims, and more timid businesses, according to AANA CEO Josh Faulks, which he said isn’t a good outcome for sustainability overall.
Speaking at Nine’s Big Ideas Store event in Sydney, Faulks said businesses should continue discussing sustainability and avoid “green hushing” or “green squashing”.
Panellists for “Washed Out: Why the Days of Greenwashing are Numbered” at Nine’s The Big Ideas Store.
From L to R: Lisa Day (Powered by Nine), Patrick Gibbons (Orizontas), Aimee Buchanan (GroupM), Josh Faulks (AANA) and Hayley Peacock (Aurora Expeditions).
“We’ve got to try and we’ve got to keep moving forward… we need to be brave to not overstep in their enthusiasm and not to overstep that mark,” Faulks said.
Faulks pointed to recent data from the ACCC which found some 57% of companies had concerns about misleading customers on green claims, and had some 37 interventions since July 2022.
In addition to regulatory action, Faulks said that the industry is in a perfect storm amid a confluence of important shifts to prevent greenwashing.
“There is definitely a shift in community standards and expectations – we’ve seen the research very clearly says that there’s a growing level of distrust from consumers around environmental claims and they are rightly demanding that brands that make environmental claims can substantiate what they are saying,” he said.
Faulks added there has also been a shift towards international best practice, with Europe and a recent European Union directive against greenwashing as an example of how to set rules and standards to comply with.
“[Australia] doesn’t really have those standards and rules at the moment, and the way it’s been described to me by a lot of brands that it’s a bit like the ‘wild west’, where people are trying to comply but don’t really know what they’re complying with when they’re trying to say they’re green or trying to say that they’re environmentally friendly.”
Faulks was joined by a number of other industry experts at the panel, called ‘Washed Out: Why the Days of Greenwashing are Numbered’, including GroupM ANZ CEO Aimee Buchanan, Aurora Expeditions CMO Hayley Peacock-Gower and ESG expert Patrick Gibbons.
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