It’s said that the best creative thinking comes from constraint.
Over the past two decades, sustainability communications have grown wildly. What started as a way of showing genuine progress has become an overgrown garden; filled with spurious sustainability standards, cryptic claims and leaf-laden labels that obscure more than they reveal. Consumers struggle to see who’s making a real difference, while businesses taking meaningful action find themselves hidden amongst the weeds.
But things are about to change, and drastically so.
From 27th September 2026, new rules under the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive – ECGT, or EmpCo for short – start to apply. With the bureaucratic and economic might of the world’s largest single market behind it, EmpCo will be like a potent weed-killer to Greenwashing. Businesses that fail to comply risk being investigated. For widespread breaches, fines can reach 4% or more of annual turnover in the EU countries concerned. That’s turnover, not profit.
What will EmpCo mean for sustainability communications?
Going forward, if a business sells products and services to consumers in the EU, environmental claims made through its marketing will need to be honest, transparent and verifiable.
And this doesn’t just include on-pack claims. If a consumer can read, see or interact with a sustainability claim as part of a business’s marketing, it could fall under EmpCo’s scope. That can include everything from website copy and social media ads to consumer-facing press releases, product names and even subtle visual cues like leafy imagery or green logos.
In short, if consumer-facing marketing implies an environmental benefit, it’s got to comply with EmpCo.
The cost of GreenHushing
With nuanced legislation and hefty fines looming, the bigger risk is that businesses go quiet about their sustainability commitments – AKA GreenHushing.
But staying quiet brings its own risks. For a start, saying nothing isn’t neutral, it speaks volumes. Edelman's 2025 Trust Barometer indicates that 53% of consumers assume that if a brand is quiet about sustainability, it's either doing nothing or hiding something. And perhaps more importantly, not marketing your sustainability credentials risks missing a serious market opportunity; with a 2025 GlobeScan report showing over 70% of people saying environmental friendliness plays a role in purchase decisions, and around half of consumers willing to pay a premium for sustainable products / brands.
Time to take sustainability off mute
For businesses who are taking meaningful action and want to move beyond GreenHushing, now is the time for GreenShouting.
As explained in The GreenShouting Guide Nice and Serious developed in collaboration with B Lab Global and Creatives for Climate, GreenShouting is the practice of telling open, honest and compelling stories about the sustainability progress you’re making. That’s why, if it’s approached in the right way, EmpCo could be the burning platform your brand needs to jump-start your sustainability communications. .
Six steps to navigate EmpCo with creative confidence.
The brands that will succeed in the EmpCo era will be those who can transform data and evidence into stories that capture attention. The overarching shift that brand communicators will need to make is to stop selling intentions, and start telling stories about action.
Here are six ways to move your marketing in this direction:
Whether it’s green, eco-conscious, planet-friendly, nature-kind or climate-positive, any environmental claim that you can’t measure goes into the bin. Terms used to make claims should be clear and verifiable (like Organic) and, where possible, linked to a third-party verified standard. Write in plain English. Focus on visceral stories that show the progress you’re making.
If you’re communicating your impact, start with ESG data that’s been approved by your sustainability and/or legal team. Data isn’t particularly dazzling alone, so the challenge is to start with the data and build a compelling brand story around it.
No business on this planet is truly sustainable. So there’s no need to pretend.
While you don’t have to be flawless in the EmpCo era, you do have to be honest. So use humility to build trust with your consumers by sharing stories about your progress.
Compliance doesn’t necessitate sprawling paragraphs of copy. You do have to be clear if you’re making a claim, but you can use QR codes and links to allow consumers to go deeper if they wish.
Legally compliant text doesn’t have to be full of dull, technical jargon. If your audience won’t understand the term – say, Scope 3 emissions – think of another accurate but relatable way to tell the story instead.
EmpCo isn’t just about the words you use. It covers visuals too.
It will combat the explosion of self-made “green” badges and logos, but you’ll need to be careful that leafy graphics or cliched stock photography of tree saplings don’t infer something you can’t back-up. Make sure graphics are accurate, and photography is authentic – showing the action you’re taking in your factories, supply chain and real employees working on your projects and initiatives.
Right then, time for you to go get the recognition your progress deserves
It’s more important than ever to speak up about sustainability: your customers crave it, and the world needs it. Yes EmpCo has upped the stakes, but it’s also clearer the path ahead: giving you an opportunity to get the recognition you deserve for the progress you’re making.
If you need help telling your sustainability story with conviction in the EmpCo era, we can help:
- • Data-first creative sprints: We can turn your ESG data into emotive campaigns, copy, design and films.
- • Green claims auditing: We can help review your copy and visual assets to identify possible EmpCo breaches.
- • Interactive Greenshouting workshops: Alongside B Lab and Creatives for Climate, we can get you familiar with the Seven Dials of Greenshouting to help your team fine-tune your sustainability communications.
This is a creative guide, not legal advice. Always check claims against the rules that apply to your business.