Since it began its anti-greenwashing global campaign in 2010, Two Sides has successfully challenged over 880 organisations that repeatedly put out anti-print messaging.
In 2021, in Europe, 574 companies removed unsubstantiated claims about paper, including Lloyds Bank, RAC, Scottish Power, N Brown Group, HSBC. In total, Two Sides has engaged over 1,900 organisations making misleading statements about paper. So far, over 880 of them have removed such statements from their communications and Two Sides continues to engage and inform the remaining organisations.
“Far from ‘saving trees,’ a healthy market for forest products such as paper encourages the long-term growth of forests through sustainable forest management. Many of the organisations we engage are surprised to learn that European forests have actually been growing by 1,500 football pitches every day,” said Two Sides Europe MD Jonathan Tame.
“It remains vital that greenwash is challenged to ensure that the industry’s great environmental record is recognised and that the livelihoods of thousands of industry employees, as well as print, paper and postage volumes, are not damaged by the spread of misleading and opportunistic greenwash marketing.”
Because of the huge reach of some of greenwashing organisations, their unsubstantiated claims have a damaging effect on consumer perceptions of paper and threaten a sector that employs 1,096,000 people in more than 115,700 businesses in the EU and UK. Recent research in Europe, conducted by Two Sides and Censuswide in 2021, found that in Europe alone, greenwashing threatens the loss of 337m Euro of value annually to the paper, print and mailing industry.