Are you sure you can make that environmental claim?
Consumers are increasingly basing their purchasing decisions on the environmental impact of the product or service. As a result, environmental claims made by businesses about their goods or services are becoming more common in advertising.
The Commerce Commission has recently released guidelines for businesses making environmental claims to help businesses understand their obligations and how to avoid breaching the Fair Trading Act (available at comcom.govt.nz). The guidelines emphasise how accurate businesses must be when making environmental claims as the penalties for getting it wrong can be serious (the maximum fine is $200,000 for individuals or $600,000 for corporates).