This translation has not been editorially reviewed yet. The German version is authoritative. Deutsche Fassung
CO₂ & EmpCo
When can a website say “sustainable” or “environmentally friendly”?
“Sustainable”, “eco-friendly”, “ecological”: such words promise something good for the environment but do not say what. Since 27 September 2026 that is no longer enough. The EU EmpCo Directive, transposed in Austria and Germany through the Unfair Competition Act (UWG), requires the same sentence to say what the claim is about, or a recognised ecolabel such as the EU Ecolabel to cover it. The check reads every sentence of your website and shows you the places where this is missing.
What counts as a generic environmental claim
A claim is generic when it asserts an environmental benefit without naming it. “We are a sustainable company” does not say what is sustainable: the electricity, the packaging, the supply chain? A reader takes it to mean all of these at once, and since the cut-off date that is exactly what is no longer allowed. “Packaging made of 100 % recycled cardboard” is different: the characteristic is in the sentence, and the reader knows what the claim refers to. The check counts as a characteristic quantities and shares with a unit, material details such as recycled or reusable, energy sources such as green electricity or photovoltaics, and recognised ecolabels such as the EU Ecolabel, the Blue Angel or the Austrian Ecolabel.
What the check deliberately leaves out
Not every “sustainable” refers to the environment. “Sustainable customer relationships” or “sustainable growth” mean lasting, so the check does not count them. Nouns such as “sustainability” or “sustainability report” name a topic and claim nothing. Words in quotation marks are mentioned, not claimed. The patterns are narrow on purpose: the check would rather miss a claim than report one that is none. A match is therefore a pointer that you or your legal adviser should look at briefly. It costs five points, however often the word occurs.
Examples
Claim about the company
Wir sind ein nachhaltiges Unternehmen aus Wels.Unser Büro in Wels bezieht seit 2024 Strom zu 100 % aus Wasserkraft.Claim about a product
Die umweltfreundliche Lösung für Ihr Büro.Das Papier ist mit dem EU Ecolabel ausgezeichnet und besteht zu 100 % aus Recyclingfasern.- Search your website for “sustainable”, “eco-friendly”, “ecological”, “climate-friendly” and “green”, and read every sentence that contains one of them.
- Write in the same sentence what the benefit refers to, with a number or a material, for example “shipped in boxes made of 100 % recycled paper”.
- If no characteristic can be named, delete the word; a claim about the whole company needs a recognised ecolabel.
