Consumers want to make sustainable choices. But can they trust the claims?
Consumers increasingly want to understand the environmental and sustainability characteristics of the products they buy. Yet sustainability information is often hard to verify, labels, logos and green claims can be confusing or inconsistent.
The EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo, EU 2024/825) tackles this head-on, targeting misleading environmental claims and greenwashing, and requiring transparent, credible and verifiable information.
From this date, companies communicating sustainability benefits will no longer be able to:
- Make generic claims like “green” or “eco-friendly” without recognised proof (e.g. EU Ecolabel, ISO 14024 Type I)
- Rely on greenhouse-gas offsetting to claim a neutral or positive climate impact
- Display sustainability labels not based on a qualifying certification scheme
- Communicate future targets (net-zero, carbon-neutral) without a credible implementation plan
- Present one green feature as if the whole product were environmentally better
- Mislead consumers about durability, repairability or expected lifespan
The stakes: non-compliance can trigger fines of at least 4% of annual turnover for widespread cross-border infringements, with some national laws going even higher.
Part of a bigger shift: from communicating sustainability to proving it
EmpCo is accelerating pressure already building from four directions:
| Driver | Why it matters |
| Regulators | EmpCo, CSRD, PPWR, ESPR, EUDR and other EU rules are raising the bar |
| Consumers | Growing scrutiny means only verified claims will be trusted |
| Banks & investors | Certifications are becoming key ESG risk evidence |
| AI & agentic commerce | AI systems need information they can verify, not just read |
From documents to digital, verifiable evidence
GS1 doesn’t certify products or own certification data. GS1 provides the infrastructure that makes trusted certification data identifiable, structured, and discoverable, directly from the source.
Three building blocks:
- Identify: Link certificates to products, organisations and locations using GTIN and GLN
- Structure: Represent certification data consistently with the GS1 Certification Data Model
- Discover: Make certification data findable at a stable web address using GS1 Registry Platforms, GS1 Digital Link and next-generation QR codes / GS1 DataMatrix
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