Sustainable brands wont thrive until we hold FMCG greenwashers to account [Video]

Bower Collective’s Nick Torday reveals how like-minded brands can learn from the daily struggles of his sustainable consumer goods company this Earth Day.

As a sustainable consumer startup, we are in a constant battle with the big FMCG brands to make a persuasive argument to consumers about the genuine environmental benefits of our products versus theirs.

Let me give you an example.

Dove, the Unilever behemoth (over $6bn revenues in 2023), makes bold and unsubstantiated claims that it is “leading the fight against plastic waste.”

In reality, Greenpeace awarded it the ‘Greenwasher of the Year’ accolade this year. The body claims Dove is dumping 12,000 highly polluting plastic sachets on low-income communities around the world every minute – that’s over 53bn single-use sachets in 2023 alone.

In December 2023, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) began an investigation into parent company Unilever under the Green Claims Code– finally holding it to account for vague and spurious claims, with the CEO of the CMA saying, …

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