Consumers and Regulators became furious with Airliners’ Greenwashing

Adverts for Air France, Lufthansa and Etihad have been banned for giving consumers a misleading impression of the airlines’ environmental credentials.

The Google ads, all seen in summer, stated that Air France was “committed to protecting the environment” and urged consumers to “travel better and sustainably”, while Lufthansa suggested that its customers would “Fly more sustainably”.
Etihad’s ad claimed its service included “Environmental Advocacy”. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated all three ads over concerns that they gave a misleading impression of the airlines’ environmental impact.

The ASA said Air France did not provide it with a “substantive response” to its investigations. Lufthansa said the “Fly more sustainably” claim was a reference to its “Green Fares” option, which passengers could select on European flights and reduced 20% of flight-related CO2 emissions by using sustainable aviation fuel and offsetting the remaining 80% with a contribution to climate protection projects. The airline, fianlly, added that it had decided to remove the sentence ‘Fly more sustainably’ from future ads. Etihad said it had immediately removed all references to “Environmental advocacy” from its paid-for Google search ads in the UK upon receiving notification of the complaint. The ASA said air travel produces high levels of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, which are making a substantial contribution to climate change.

It also understood that there are currently no initiatives or commercially viable technologies in operation within the aviation industry that would adequately substantiate absolute green claims

For more info see source: Airlines Come Under Fire for Misleading Sustainability  and www.cityam.com

new-economy.gr