– We are phasing out the climate compensation as we are phasing out the messages ‘net zero climate footprint’, says Victoria Olsson, head of sustainability at Arla Sweden to Swedish Radio.
Last year the Consumer Ombudsman sued Arla Sweden for violating the Marketing Act and misleading the consumers with the campaign ”net zero climate footprint’. Today Tuesday the 22. Of November the trial begins.
In an interview in Swedish Radio Victoria Olsson, head of sustainability at Arla Sweden defend the campaign that started in 2019 – with the text ”Net zero climate footprint” on the packaging in Arla’s organic range and in advertising campaigns in social media. The message was justified with Arla’s initiatives for climate compensating by planting trees in Uganda and other measures to offset the climate of the organic goods.
– This was launched as an added value for Eco consumers. Because the debate at the time was that there was a lack of a climate incentive for eco-products, says Victoria Olsson
In November last year, the Consumer Ombudsman sued Arla for violating the Marketing Act. And in the spring the dairy company announced that they were ending the net zero campaign because it took focus from their more important work of reducing emissions on dairy farms. Now Arla also stops climate compensating the products regardless of how the trial goes.
– We are phasing out the climate compensation as we are phasing out the messages, Victoria Olsson says and explains:
– Our sustainability initiatives need to be profitable. If we can’t talk about our initiatives – about this climate compensation, then we see that we cannot justify continuing.
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