28 July 2015

88% Success Rate in Latest Anti-Greenwash Initiative

Two Sides today released interim results for their latest campaign to tackle the use of greenwash among UK organisations.

88% Success Rate in latest Anti-Greenwash Initiative.

Interim campaign results demonstrate effectiveness of challenging misleading 'paper-free is better for the environment' claims.
Two Sides, the global initiative to promote the sustainability of print and paper, has today announced an 88% success in its latest campaign to tackle the use of greenwash among UK corporations.  Since May this year, Two Sides has identified and challenged 25 well known organisations for making inaccurate and misleading environmental statements to their customers to encourage them to go paperless.  To date, 22 of those companies approached by Two Sides have agreed to remove their offending claims.

The latest results build on an earlier campaign in 2012 when 68 out of 83 organisations changed their marketing messages after being similarly contacted by Two Sides.

The link between reducing the use of print and paper and helping the environment creates a false impression about its sustainability. Paper is a renewable and recyclable product that, when responsibly managed, is an environmentally sustainable media.  In Europe, the area of forest cover has grown by 30% since 1950 and has been increasing at a rate of 1.5 million football pitches every year.

The belief that e-communication is more environmentally-friendly than print is generally unproven, with a distinct lack of life cycle data to support such claims, especially in light of the increasing energy requirements needed to support the growing network of worldwide digital servers.

While recognised as efficient, digital communication and data storage is not necessarily more sustainable. In the UK alone, it has been suggested that PC’s and servers could consume up to 50% of the country’s energy requirements over the next 10 years.