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Guide

Green Claims and LCA: How to Make Credible Environmental Claims and Avoid Greenwashing

Green Claims and LCA: How to Make Credible Environmental Claims and Avoid Greenwashing

More than half of green claims are vague, misleading or unfounded. As regulators tighten the rules, this guide sets out Minviro's four principles for making environmental claims that are evidence-driven, transparent, holistic and properly contextualised.

More than half of green claims are vague, misleading or unfounded. As regulators tighten the rules, this guide sets out Minviro's four principles for making environmental claims that are evidence-driven, transparent, holistic and properly contextualised.

IN SUMMARY

Making environmental claims you can defend

Making environmental claims you can defend

Consumer demand for low-impact products has created a strong commercial case for promoting environmental performance, but misleading green claims are everywhere. A 2020 European Commission study found that 53% of green claims were vague, misleading or unfounded, and 40% were unsubstantiated. As the EU's Green Claims Directive and similar national rules come into force, every company will need more rigour in how it makes and markets environmental claims. This guide explains how life cycle assessment underpins credible claims, and sets out Minviro's four guiding principles for substantiating and communicating them without greenwashing.

  • Greenwashing is often unintentional. It happens not only by overstating benefits, but by cherry-picking one life cycle stage or impact category, using vague terms like "eco-friendly," or failing to understand complex supply chains.

  • Credible claims rest on two pillars. A claim must be properly substantiated by quality data and accurate interpretation, and clearly communicated so the consumer is not misled, both are needed.

  • LCA is the backbone of defensible claims. Its ISO-compliant, multi-impact, whole-life methodology lets companies substantiate comparative and non-comparative claims and stand behind them under scrutiny.

What greenwashing looks like, and why it happens

Greenwashing occurs when a product is made to seem more environmentally beneficial than it is, and it can be intentional or accidental. In the technology and raw materials sector it takes recognisable forms: vague, undefined terms like "sustainable" or "green"; overemphasis on a single positive attribute while obscuring negatives; inflated energy-efficiency claims that ignore whole-of-life consumption; unverified eco-labels designed to look like real certifications; a lack of standardised reporting that prevents fair comparison; and limited life cycle analysis that judges a product on one stage, such as the use phase, while ignoring manufacturing and disposal. Underlying many of these is a simple cause: complex global supply chains that companies do not fully understand or disclose. The fix is consistent across all of them, claims need robust evidence, transparency and clear communication.

Why LCA underpins credible claims

To understand a product's true environmental impact, its whole life span has to be assessed, and that is exactly what life cycle assessment does. LCA models impacts from raw material extraction and processing through manufacturing, transport, use and end of life, across as many as 16 environmental categories including carbon footprint, ecosystem and human health, resource depletion and land use. Practitioners define a functional unit (such as one kilogram of active material or one kilowatt-hour of energy) and a system boundary (cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-grave or cradle-to-cradle), then build a full inventory of inputs and outputs for each stage. Because the methodology is rigorous and ISO-compliant, it is widely used to meet sustainability regulations and, crucially, to substantiate credible comparative and non-comparative environmental claims rather than relying on assertion.

The four principles of a credible claim

Minviro's framework rests on four principles. Be evidence-driven: base claims on verifiable, relevant, up-to-date, high-quality data from direct measurement, government or reputable bodies, or peer-reviewed studies. Be transparent: use a clear, repeatable methodology like LCA, state data sources and collection methods, and be explicit about limitations and assumptions so experts and non-experts alike can scrutinise the claim. Be holistic: account for the whole life cycle and multiple impact categories rather than cherry-picking a favourable stage or a single metric such as carbon, and always make clear which stage a claim refers to. And provide context: give consumers meaningful comparison, against like-for-like products with the same functional output, performance benchmarks, sustainability targets, or historical trends, so they can judge relative performance, alongside scene-setting information about the business and industry.

Minviro's framework rests on four principles. Be evidence-driven: base claims on verifiable, relevant, up-to-date, high-quality data from direct measurement, government or reputable bodies, or peer-reviewed studies. Be transparent: use a clear, repeatable methodology like LCA, state data sources and collection methods, and be explicit about limitations and assumptions so experts and non-experts alike can scrutinise the claim. Be holistic: account for the whole life cycle and multiple impact categories rather than cherry-picking a favourable stage or a single metric such as carbon, and always make clear which stage a claim refers to. And provide context: give consumers meaningful comparison, against like-for-like products with the same functional output, performance benchmarks, sustainability targets, or historical trends, so they can judge relative performance, alongside scene-setting information about the business and industry.

From LCA report to credible claim in practice

A single LCA report is a rich source of defensible claims, covering the value chain, production routes, inputs and outputs per stage, the impact categories analysed, the results, and strategies to reduce impact. Turning that into a credible public claim means following clear rules. On substantiation: consider the whole life cycle and multiple impact categories, compare only products with the same functional output and system boundary, use verifiable data and a repeatable method, and never exclude a relevant stage or over-emphasise an irrelevant impact. On communication: state results in clear, specific terms, indicate the system boundary and life cycle stage the claim addresses, make the data and methodology accessible, and avoid blanket phrases like "carbon neutral" or "environmentally friendly" and undefined jargon. A worked example in the guide shows this in action, an ISO-compliant, critically reviewed graphite LCA producing a specific, contextualised claim ("X kg CO₂e per kg, X% below the global average") suitable for a report, LinkedIn post or tweet, each tailored to its channel but anchored to the same evidence.

A single LCA report is a rich source of defensible claims, covering the value chain, production routes, inputs and outputs per stage, the impact categories analysed, the results, and strategies to reduce impact. Turning that into a credible public claim means following clear rules. On substantiation: consider the whole life cycle and multiple impact categories, compare only products with the same functional output and system boundary, use verifiable data and a repeatable method, and never exclude a relevant stage or over-emphasise an irrelevant impact. On communication: state results in clear, specific terms, indicate the system boundary and life cycle stage the claim addresses, make the data and methodology accessible, and avoid blanket phrases like "carbon neutral" or "environmentally friendly" and undefined jargon. A worked example in the guide shows this in action, an ISO-compliant, critically reviewed graphite LCA producing a specific, contextualised claim ("X kg CO₂e per kg, X% below the global average") suitable for a report, LinkedIn post or tweet, each tailored to its channel but anchored to the same evidence.

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Strategic Accounts Manager at Minviro

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Our data focuses on materials and processes where environmental performance varies sharply by route, geography, and technology, exactly where industry averages fall apart. Choose individual routes from across the critical minerals, battery, magnet, and heavy-industry value chains. Each one lands in XYCLE as a working model: open the unit processes, see where the impact sits, test a different supplier or energy grid, and watch the number move, defensible enough for a regulatory filing, transparent enough to act on.

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