If we needed proof the green was ‘the new black’ it was surely supplied by the recent stampede by companies to brand their various products as environmentally friendly.

But do they actually live up to true environmental ideals or are they just ‘greenwashing’? Today the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority, the body cursed with the task of enforcing truth in advertising, put out its latest annual report, detailing “record numbers of complaints about environmental claims”.

In total the ASA received 556 complaints about 408 ads last year, compared to 117 complaints about 83 ads the year before (press release, report pdf). Complaints against 24 ads were upheld.

“Claims that products and services were carbon ‘neutral’ or ‘zero’ or ‘negative’ were particularly open to challenge, as were statements about CO2 emissions or absolute claims such as ‘100% recycled’ or ‘wholly sustainable’,” says the report.

My favourite reason for upholding a complaint relates to an ad from Shell which showing chimneys emitting flowers. This was misleading, the ASA says, “because it implied that Shell used at least the majority of their waste CO2 to grow flowers, whereas the actual amount was a very small proportion when compared to the global activities of Shell”.