What the EU’s Directive on Green Claims means for sport organizations

This commentary explores how the European Union’s new Directive on Green Claims will affect marketing and communication practices across the sport industry, in particular when it comes to greenwashing. Greenwashing is the practice of misleading consumers about environmental efforts, through deceptive marketing and communication. Misleading claims about environmental efforts manifest across many sport organizations and extend beyond the sport industry, and represent a missed opportunity to drive social change.

The Green Claims Directive aims to curb misleading environmental claims and better regulate sustainability certification, life cycle impacts and product labelling. Thus, with legal and regulatory pressure increasing, sport organizations must now back up their environmental claims with verifiable data. In particular, the Directive bans the use of certain terms which cannot be used in communication by the organizations unless backed by third-party accreditations and publicly available evidence. The study thus proposes a sport-focused analysis of the EU Directive, offering both a conceptual overview and practical pathways for how the industry is expected adapt to the new communication and transparency standards.

The paper identifies five key organizational shifts: green muting or greenhushing, re-learning sustainability communication, better metrics and reporting, develop new terminology, and aligning with service providers and partners. These organizational shifts need to be complemented with new research questions aiming to facilitate these ecological transitions. Managers in sport organizations should urgently review their environmental communication strategies and supply chain partnerships in light of these recommendations, to ensure compliance with evolving regulations and avoid reputational and legal risks.

CITE: Traberg, J., Orr, M., & Horbel, C. (2025). What will a greenwashing ban entail for the sport industry? Managing Sport and Leisure, 1-9. doi: 10.1080/23750472.2025.2482222

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