The practice of "greenwashing" is set to be targeted by the European Union, with a new directive to protect consumers.
Lots of companies make claims about their environmental sustainability but there is no simple way for consumers to know if what is claimed is true or may qualify as "greenwashing".
There are many definitions of what greenwashing is, but it basically involves entities making inaccurate or even false claims about the environmental impacts of their businesses, services or products.
In Ireland consumers can complain to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) if they think a claim is untrue.
The ASAI recently upheld a number of such complaints, with one concerning a petrol lawnmower that had been advertised as "environmentally friendly".
The authority ruled the new model lawnmower may have been less environmentally damaging, but it was not correct to say it was environmentally friendly.
Other complaints the ASAI recently adjudicated on concerned claims by companies in their advertisements they were supplying 100% green electricity to customers' homes and businesses.
Orla Twomey, Chief Executive of the ASAI, said: "We found that because of the way the energy market works, the electricity grid is a mix of all the different sources of energy so you can't actually say that what comes out of the plug in someone's homes is 100% green energy."
In order to tackle "greenwashing" and empower consumers to choose products based on their proven environmental credentials, the European Commission is now bringing forward the Green Claims Directive.
It will set standards across the EU for companies that claim they are genuinely adapting products and businesses to be less harmful to the environment.
Aoife Connaughton, head of sustainability with Deloitte, said the new directive will make sure that there is a "level playing field and holding companies to higher standards, to improve the credibility and the reliability of green claims and make sure they can be externally verified".
Younger consumers are generally held to be more environmentally conscious, and also a desirable target market for companies.
Students in UCD who spoke to RTÉ News said some companies that claim to be environmentally friendly have to be taken with a pinch of salt.
"Companies know that people want to hear they are environmentally friendly," said one student.
Another said such claims are "very obviously thrown out there to make themselves look better".
While another student said companies "definitely do have a tendency to try to seem more trendy and more environmentally friendly".
That cynicism seems to be well founded, according to research conducted for the European Commission.
It found that 53% of green claims give vague, misleading or unfounded information; 40% of claims have no supporting evidence; and half of all green labels offer weak or nonexistent verification.
