How to write an eco slogan without greenwashing yourself

Quick answer

Write an eco slogan by naming one specific, provable thing you do better, such as “packed in 100% recycled card” or “repairs before replacements”, rather than vague words like green, eco-friendly or sustainable. Make sure you could show evidence, that the claim covers what it seems to cover, and that it hides no bigger environmental trade-off.

For years, a leaf icon and the word “eco” were enough to signal a business cared about the environment. That has changed. Regulators now treat vague environmental claims as a consumer protection issue, customers have grown sceptical, and competitors are quick to complain. The good news is that the slogans that stay within the rules are usually the better slogans anyway: specific, concrete and memorable. This guide gives you a method.

Why vague green slogans are a problem

A word like “sustainable” promises a lot. It suggests the whole product, across its life, has little impact on the planet. Very few products can prove that. A slogan built on it invites the question “how?”, and if the answer is “our boxes are recyclable”, the claim looks bigger than the reality. That gap is what regulators call greenwashing.

It also does nothing for your brand. Every business can say “eco-friendly”. Very few can say “we repair 9 out of 10 machines instead of replacing them”, and the one that can is far more memorable.

The rules, in plain English

Two sets of rules matter. The Competition and Markets Authority’s Green Claims Code explains how consumer law applies to environmental claims. In short, claims must:

• be truthful and accurate;
• be clear and unambiguous;
• not hide or leave out important information;
• make only fair and meaningful comparisons;
• consider the full life cycle of the product or service;
• be backed up by evidence.

The Advertising Standards Authority applies similar principles to adverts, websites and social posts, and publishes guidance on environmental claims. The CMA can now enforce consumer law directly and fine businesses that break it, so the stakes are higher than they were.

Step 1: find the specific thing

Start with what you actually do. List every concrete environmental choice in your business: materials, suppliers, transport, energy, waste, repairs, refills, local sourcing. Look for the one that is most significant and easiest to prove. That is the raw material for your slogan.

Step 2: check you could prove it

For each claim, ask: if someone challenged this tomorrow, what would I show them? Supplier certificates, invoices, test results, a calculation you can explain. If the honest answer is “nothing much”, the claim is not ready to go on a slogan.

Step 3: check the whole picture

A claim can be true and still misleading if it hides a bigger impact. A clothing brand promoting recycled swing tags while shipping by air, or a café praising its paper straws while serving everything in single-use cups, invites criticism. Make sure the thing you highlight is not a distraction from something worse.

Step 4: write it in plain words

Replace vague terms with what they actually mean.

Notice the specific lines are also better slogans. They give a picture, and they say something a competitor cannot simply copy.

Step 5: qualify where needed

If a claim only covers part of the product or business, say so. “Our packaging is plastic-free” is clearer than “plastic-free” on its own when the product itself contains plastic. If you use carbon offsets, say so and explain what they cover; the ASA has ruled against carbon neutral claims that did not.

A worked example: a cleaning company

A domestic cleaning firm in Bath wanted to promote its switch to refillable products. Its first slogan was “Eco-friendly cleaning for a greener Bath”. It said nothing a competitor could not say, and it implied every part of the business was low impact, including the petrol cars the cleaners drove between jobs. The owner listed what had actually changed: concentrated products refilled from bulk containers, microfibre cloths washed and reused for months, and no single-use wipes. The new line was “Refilled, not thrown away”, supported on the website by a short page explaining the refill system and how many plastic bottles it avoided each month, calculated from the firm’s own supplier invoices. It was shorter, it was true, and customers remembered it.

Words to handle with care

• Green, eco, eco-friendly, sustainable, natural, kind to the planet: broad and hard to prove.
• Carbon neutral, net zero: need clear evidence and an explanation of offsets.
• Biodegradable, compostable: need to say under what conditions, such as industrial composting.
• Recyclable: true only if it can actually be recycled through normal collections.

Keep the brand consistent

An environmental message should sit within your brand, not replace it. Leaf icons, green gradients and stock photographs of forests make you look like every other business making the same claim. Your own colours, type and photography of your real practices do more. If you are refreshing your look to reflect a genuine change in how you work, our guide on when to rebrand and our post on announcing a rebrand help you do it without confusing customers.

The same rules apply wherever the slogan appears: your website, social posts, vans and printed material all count as marketing under the UK advertising code, so one approved line used everywhere is easier to defend than several variations. If your slogan will appear on packaging, check the rules there too; our guide to packaging design for small brands covers sustainability claims on packs.

Getting help

Our brand identity design is £299 one-off and covers the logo, colours, typography, imagery and brand guidelines, including the tone of voice your slogans grow from. Our free brand audit checklist is a good place to start, and all our prices are on the pricing page. This post is general guidance, not legal advice; for a high-profile campaign, check claims with a specialist.