Devon’s ‘green’ credentials fail to impress

12 September 2007

The Advertising Standards Authority has ordered Devon County Council to remove the claim ‘England’s greenest county’ from future marketing, because it is unsubstantiated.

The ASA upheld a complainant’s concern that, in her view, Devon had not demonstrated it was more environmentally responsible than other county councils.

‘We considered that the claim was absolute, and implied DCC held substantiation to show it was ahead of all other county councils in terms of environmental issues,’ it said. ‘Because we had not seen evidence to show this was the case, we concluded that the claim “England’s greenest county” was likely to mislead.’

Responding to the adjudication, Cllr Brian Greenslade, leader of DCC, said the ‘greenest county’ campaign was intended to provoke public debate and raise awareness of climate change. ‘By claiming to be the greenest county, we made national headlines and started people talking about what they could do to make their environment and communities greener,’ he said. ‘It might have been an ambitious claim, but we are very much aspiring to be the greenest county in England.’ He said ‘radical plans’ to cut carbon emissions by 13% by 2012 were under way, and Devon was in the top three recycling counties in England. Only one of three elements of the complaint was upheld.

The ASA accepted other claims in the national press advertisement that ‘Devon is leading the country with initiatives that… combat global warming’ and that ‘half of Devon’s stunning countryside is protected’. The complainant believed Devon had a poor record for supporting renewable-energy projects and had recently approved construction of a road scheme – namely Barnstaple bypass – which interfered with a local estuary and encouraged tourists to travel to the county by car.

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Devon’s ‘green’ credentials fail to impress

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