September 22, 2008

Saab Plants Trees To Placate Australian Ad Board

A year after Saab was accused of Greenwashing, Saab Australia’s parent company, GM Holden, has been successfully sued by Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for misleading buyers into believing their vehicles would be carbon-neutral during their lifetimes, Autoblog reports.

Last year, Saab Australia touted that, “Every Saab is green with carbon emissions neutral across the entire Saab range.” The campaign said Saab would plant 17 trees to offset CO2 emissions for the lifespan of each car sold. In fact, 17 trees only offsets the car’s first year carbon emissions.

Since then, GM has agreed not to republish the original advertisement and to retrain its marketing staff in relation to making green claims.

According to the Motor Report, GM has also pledged to plant 12,500 trees to offset an estimated 10 year’s worth of CO2 emissions from its vehicles.

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