This article is general information, not legal advice.

What Changed

In June 2024, amendments to the Competition Act (Bill C-59) added specific rules for environmental claims. A claim about a product's benefit to the environment must be based on adequate and proper testing. Claims about a business or its activities, such as a company-wide climate pledge, must be backed by adequate and proper substantiation.

In March 2026, further amendments (Bill C-15) narrowed some of those rules for business-level claims. The product rule didn't change: if a supplier says its product is better for the environment, the testing has to exist.

The Competition Bureau enforces these rules, and it publishes guidance on environmental claims.

Five Questions to Ask

1. What test backs this claim, and can I see it? "Biodegradable" should point to a result, such as a Safety Data Sheet classification or a named test method like OECD 301B. If the answer is a brochure, keep asking.

2. Which document is it in? A claim you can't find in an SDS, a lab report or a certificate is a claim you can't put in your own file.

3. Does it apply to this product? A brand-level pledge, a single ingredient or a sister product isn't the product on your order. Ask whether the claim applies to the exact item and format you're buying.

4. Who certified it, and is it current? Check that the certification belongs to this product, is still valid, and comes from the body named on the logo.

5. What don't you claim? It's a revealing question. A supplier with real evidence can tell you exactly where its evidence stops. Vague words like "eco-friendly" or "green" describe nothing measurable, so treat them as a prompt for question one.

Why It Matters to Buyers

When a supplier's claim doesn't hold, the risk doesn't stay with the supplier. It shows up in your substitution memo, your supplier questionnaire and your sustainability report. Asking these five questions up front turns a marketing claim into a documented one, or shows you it was never there.

How We Answer Them

We publish every environmental claim for our products alongside the document that proves it, and we list what we don't claim yet, including carbon footprint and packaging. You can see the whole table on our Sustainability page.

Product claims in this article come from the product's Safety Data Sheet or the documents linked above.