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Ali Hodgson wins Award

EcoLabs collaborator Ali Hodgson was awarded the Design for our Future Selves award this week from the Helen Hamlyn Centre for her board game and associated book called: 'Endgame'.

EasyJet - Ruling by ASA

EcoLabs is disappointed to report that the Advertising Standards Authority has ruled in favour of EasyJet in regards to our complaint regarding the EasyJet’s claim that flying will be 50% cleaner in 10 years time. The ASA based its decision on what it claims is ‘confidential commercially sensitive material’ – so it is virtually impossible for us to argue our case, but the fact remains that no aircraft has yet been designed that could produce these emissions cuts, and that once one is designed it will take many more years to replace the current fleet.

EcoLabs also recently had the opportunity to attend a session hosted by the ASA for advertisers: ‘What does ‘green’ mean?', which described the legalities of making green claims. From our perspective, the processes used by the agency to qualify adverts as genuine are practically meaningless. The agency remains blindly optimistic that corporations will indeed do the right thing (but when they are allowed to blatantly get away with unsubstantiated claims it makes doing the right thing even less likely). Because of a lack of commitment to rigorous analysis of the facts the ASA itself plays and active role perpetuating greenwash by giving legitimacy to unsubstantial information. Certainly if the people within the ASA were genuinely concerned about global warming, the penalties for greenwash would reflect the scale of the problem.

EcoLabs