|
Company directors who exaggerate the green credentials of their firms in order to increase business should beware or risk having their plans backfire, Envirowise said last week.
Green credentials are "increasingly important" and if the public finds out that a companys green claims are "gratuitous", then businesses "can expect sales to drop", Envirowise added.
Research by the Co-operative bank published in its 2007 Ethical Consumerism Report, reveals that a third of consumers consciously seek information on a companys reputation.
Further findings have revealed that consumers are prepared to cease using the services and products of brands that they believe to be behaving unethically.
Results from the 2003 research found that consumer boycotts cost big businesses £2.6 billion a year - a figure which increased in 2004 to a cost of £3.2 billion.
In September 2006, the Advertising Standards Authority received just ten complaints regarding companies over-inflating their environmental performance in their advertising, whereas in September this year, it received 93.
Dr Martin Gibson, programme director for Envirowise, said: "The green bandwagon is closely monitored by the greenwash naming and shaming community and it is a foolish business that indulges in green rhetoric without matching it in reality."
See copyright notice
| Other
Top Business News Stories |
|
Business
News 
