Opinion – We need to ground airlines for greenwashing

A series of airline adverts have been banned for false sustainability claims. It’s a promising step in the right direction.

When it comes to pointing global warming’s finger of blame, airlines tend to be first on the receiving end.

But having long been criticised for its significant carbon footprint (which accounted for 2% of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2022), the aviation industry has attempted to rebrand itself as eco-friendly.

To varying degrees of success, millions has been poured into marketing campaigns that tout sustainability initiatives and shiny statistics. But these are often mere lip service.

Unsurprisingly, airlines are rarely held to account, largely because of how heavily we rely on them. And after COVID-19 restrictions halted tourism, the number of us hopping on board a flight is only rising.

This week, however, the BBC reported that adverts for major aviation companies Air France, Lufthansa, and Etihad had been banned for misleading consumers about their environmental impact.

The campaigns featured sustainability buzzwords like ‘committed to protecting the environment’ and ‘environmental advocacy’. But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said the ads failed to show the impact airlines have on climate change.

By claiming they offered customers a way to ‘travel better and sustainably’ the ASA said Air France was implying the airline offered a sustainable way to travel, which isn’t the case.

‘In the absence of any evidence demonstrating that Air France were protecting the environment and making aviation sustainable, we concluded that the claims have consumers a misleading impression of the impact that travelling with Air France would have on the environment’ ASA stated.

Ultimately, the airlines were accused of ‘corporate greenwashing’, and all of the campaigns were taken down.

Lufthansa has previously stated it aims to be carbon neutral by 2050, while Etihad shared that sustainability was a ‘key priority’ for the business.

But this isn’t the first time these airlines have been called out for greenwashing.

In March of this year, Lufhansa’s ‘Make Change Fly’ campaign was found to have misled consumers by implying the company had already made changes to combat its environmental impact.

Despite protests from the company, the ASA upheld their decision to ban the campaign on the basis that air travel produces high levels of both CO2 and non-CO2 emissions – both of which make a substantial contribution to climate change.