US Coming On Board With Other Guidelines

Trade-Offs - Net Environmental Benefit

The US has now come on board with most other guidelines in requiring you to consider whether an improvement you've made on one environmental front (e.g., reducing the amount of petroleum-based plastic you use) has worsened other environmental impacts your product has. Let's not paraphrase this important wording, which is: "If a qualified general claim conveys that a product is more environmentally beneficial overall because of the particular touted benefit(s), marketers should analyze trade-offs resulting from the benefit(s) to determine if they can substantiate this claim." (US Guide, §260.4(c); emphasis is ours.)

Canada's Guide provides, among other related principles, that, "It is not permissible to shift the environmental burden from one stage of a product's life to another and then make a claim concerning the improved stage without considering whether there is, in fact, a net overall environmental benefit." (Emphasis is