Anti-Greenwashing Agreement

Grow Ahead believes in meaningful business partnerships and does not approve of any campaigns that are “greenwashing”. The Oxford English Dictionary defines greenwashing as “Disinformation disseminated by an organization so as to present an environmentally responsible public image.” Greenwashing describes the making of a false or exaggerated claim about products or services with regard to their environmental (or social) attributes, source materials or other connections. 

Grow Ahead does not expect business partners to be perfect with environmental, sustainable and social work but we do expect partners to be truthful and transparent in their claims. 

Grow Ahead is not a carbon offsetting company and our projects do not offer carbon certifications. Therefore businesses should avoid talking about support of Grow Ahead projects as ‘offsets’. ¹

General Environmental Benefit Claims

All self-declared environmental claims must be: accurate, verifiable, not misleading, substantiated, specific, unlikely to result in misinterpretation or misunderstanding, true to the final product AND also take into account the entire product life cycle.²

Marketers should not make broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like "green" or "eco-friendly" that are difficult to substantiate, if not impossible. Marketers should qualify general claims with specific environmental benefits. Qualifications for any claims should be clear, prominent, and specific. 

ecological
Grow Ahead teams up with community organizations around the world to support projects that improve the environment and community livelihoods.