Greenwashing examples in Australia

What happened

Vanguard marketed its Ethically Conscious Global Aggregate Bond Index Fund as excluding investments in companies with significant business activities in fossil fuels and other industries via 'ESG exclusionary screens'. In fact, the screens applied a limited research methodology that did not exclude all of the bonds Vanguard's marketing implied.

Why it mattered

Then the largest greenwashing penalty under Australian law. The Federal Court emphasised that the conduct misled both retail and wholesale investors over a multi-year period and that the screens' true scope was not disclosed in the product disclosure statement.

What happened

Mercer's website promoted seven 'Sustainable Plus' investment options as excluding investments in companies involved in carbon-intensive fossil fuels, alcohol production and gambling. The options in fact held investments in 15 companies with activities in those industries.

Why it mattered

ASIC's first greenwashing case to reach final judgment. The Federal Court accepted that members 'were entitled to expect that the Sustainable Plus options would not include investments' in the excluded categories.

What happened

Active Super stated on its website, in disclosure documents and in social media that its ESG investment screens eliminated investments in tobacco, gambling, oil tar sands, Russian investments (after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine) and other categories. The Federal Court found in June 2024 that Active Super held investments it had claimed to exclude.

Why it mattered

ASIC's third successful greenwashing penalty case in less than a year. The Court emphasised that members made investment decisions on the strength of the public claims.

What happened

Between June 2021 and July 2023 Clorox marketed certain GLAD kitchen and garbage bags as being made of '50% Ocean Plastic'. The bags in fact contained recycled plastic collected from communities up to 50 km inland from any waterway — not plastic recovered from the ocean — and the recycled content was around half of the 50% figure for some products.

Why it mattered

The Federal Court accepted that the 'Ocean Plastic' label and the supporting graphics led ordinary consumers to believe the recycled content came from the ocean itself. The penalty reflected the multi-year duration and broad consumer reach of the claim.

What happened

AGN's 2022 'Love Gas' advertising depicted households using gas distributed through its network in 'the future' as renewable. The Federal Court found that, on the evidence, the future supply of renewable gas to households at scale was not reasonably foreseeable in the timeframes implied.

Why it mattered

A clear example of an aspirational claim being treated as a present-tense representation. Forward-looking statements have to be grounded in a reasonable basis for the timing and likelihood they imply.