| kestävä | Sustainable | Sustainability is a whole-lifecycle property. Used as an adjective for a product it asserts excellence across every impact category, which needs lifecycle evidence almost no seller holds. |
| vihreä | Green | “Green” is the textbook generic claim: no scope, no metric, no verification. It is also a colour and a common proper noun, so a match here is a prompt to look, not a conclusion — check whether the word is doing any environmental work in the sentence. |
| luonnollinen | Natural | "Natural" reads as an environmental and safety benefit but has no legal definition outside food and cosmetics standards. Natural origin also does not make a substance harmless. |
| ympäristöystävällinen | Environmentally friendly | Same defect as "eco-friendly" in longer form. It claims net benefit to the environment as a whole while every physical product carries a footprint. |
| ekologinen | Ecological | Presented as a quality mark, it asserts general environmental soundness. In several member states it is also treated as implying organic certification. |
| ekoystävällinen | Eco-friendly | A blanket friendliness claim tells the buyer nothing measurable. It is only allowed where you can demonstrate recognised excellent environmental performance covering the whole product, which in practice means an EU Ecolabel or an equivalent Type I scheme. |
| ilmastoystävällinen | Climate friendly | Suggests a positive or neutral climate effect for a product that still emits. Where the basis is offsetting it also breaches the offsetting ban. |
| ilmastoneutraali | Climate neutral | The most litigated term in this list. Beyond point 4c, German case law (BGH klimaneutral, 2024) held the term ambiguous and misleading unless the basis is explained in the advertisement itself. |
| hiilineutraali | Carbon neutral | Prohibited where it rests on offsetting, which is how virtually all such claims are built. The German Federal Court of Justice (BGH, I ZR 98/23) additionally requires the meaning of the term to be explained at the point of the claim. |
| CO2-neutraali | CO2 neutral | Identical in substance to "climate neutral" and caught by the same prohibition and case law. |
| biohajoava | Biodegradable | Everything degrades eventually. Without the conditions, the timeframe and the test method the word promises disappearance that does not happen in a landfill or the sea. |
| kompostoituva | Compostable | Industrial and home composting are different capabilities, and most consumers have access only to the latter. Unqualified, the claim misdirects disposal behaviour. |
| kierrätettävä | Recyclable | Technically recyclable is not the same as actually collected. If no separate collection stream exists in the markets you sell to, the claim misleads. |
| kierrätetty | Recycled | The trap is scope: "recycled packaging" on a product with a virgin plastic bottle and a recycled outer sleeve is a partial benefit presented as a whole-product one. |
| muoviton | Plastic-free | Frequently false at component level: adhesives, liners, coatings and labels usually contain polymers. It also implies an overall environmental benefit that a heavier alternative may not deliver. |
| kemikaaliton | Chemical-free | Scientifically impossible — all matter is chemical. It plays on chemophobia and cannot be substantiated in any form. |
| uusiutuva | Renewable | "Renewable" says the input regrows, not that the product is better. Without the share, the source and the certification it carries the weight of an environmental benefit it has not demonstrated — and for energy it needs a supplier-specific figure, not a national grid average. |
| kestävyys | Sustainability | Used as a product or badge label (“Sustainability score”, “Sustainability choice”) it is a generic claim and has to be substantiated. The word also has a legitimate use as the title of a real report or policy page — we cannot tell the two apart from the wording alone, so we flag it and leave the judgement to you. If this instance is a report title, mark it and move on. |
| vastuullinen | Responsible | "Responsibly made" or "responsible sourcing" asserts ethical and environmental diligence without naming the standard the diligence is measured against. |
| myrkytön | Non-toxic | Toxicity is dose-dependent and substance-specific, so a blanket "non-toxic" is not demonstrable. It also implies competitors are toxic. |
| päästötön | Zero emissions | Absolute and almost always false for a physical product across its lifecycle. It is defensible only for a narrowly defined stage that genuinely emits nothing, and the stage must be named. |
| vähähiilinen | Low carbon | "Low" is implicitly comparative and therefore needs a disclosed benchmark. Low compared to what, measured how? |
| nettonolla | Net zero | As a present-tense product claim it is an offsetting claim. As a target it is a future-performance claim needing verifiable commitments and independent monitoring. |
| biopohjainen | Bio-based | Bio-based says where the carbon came from, not that the product is compostable, recyclable or lower impact — yet consumers read all three into it. |
| ilmastopositiivinen | Carbon positive | Claims a net beneficial climate effect. In practice it always rests on purchased credits, which point 4c rules out as a basis for any neutrality, reduction or positive-impact claim. |
| CO2-vähennetty | CO2 reduced | A reduction claim is only meaningful against a stated baseline, scope and period. Without them the buyer cannot tell what was reduced or from what. |
| hiilinegatiivinen | Carbon negative | An even stronger version of the neutrality claim, and equally dependent on credits. Point 4c covers neutral, reduced and positive impact claims based on offsetting. |
| vihreämpi kuin | Greener than... | A comparison is only fair if the buyer can see what was compared, on which impacts, using which data. "Greener" discloses none of it. |
| kestävämpi | More sustainable | Combines the generic-claim problem with an undisclosed benchmark — vague on both the metric and the comparison set. |
| ympäristöystävällisempi | Eco-friendlier | Comparative form of a term that is already too vague in its base form. |
| BPA-vapaa | BPA-free | BPA has been banned in food contact materials in the EU since Regulation (EU) 2024/3190. Advertising its absence as a benefit presents compliance as a distinguishing feature. |
| eläinkokeeton | No animal testing | Animal testing of cosmetics and their ingredients has been prohibited in the EU since 2013 under Regulation 1223/2009. For cosmetics sold in the EU this is compliance, not a differentiator. |
| CE-sertifioitu | CE certified | CE marking is mandatory for the product categories that require it, and it is a manufacturer's declaration, not a certification. Marketing it as a quality feature is doubly misleading. |
| ftalaatiton | Phthalate-free | The main phthalates are restricted or authorisation-only under REACH Annex XVII and XIV, so for most consumer goods absence is the legal baseline. |
| maapalloystävällinen | Earth-friendly | A planetary-scale benefit claim with no scope, no metric and no possible substantiation for an individual product. |
| luonnonystävällinen | Nature's friend | A figurative benefit claim. Regulators read implied environmental claims the same way as explicit ones, and the figurative framing makes it harder, not easier, to substantiate. |
| hiiliystävällinen | Carbon friendly | Implies emissions are benign. Combines the generic-claim problem with an unquantified climate assertion. |
| vastuullisuusarvosana | Own sustainability score | A self-calculated score is a sustainability label under the Directive. Self-issued rating systems are exactly what point 2a targets. |
| kiertotalous | Circular | Without a real take-back route this is an intention, not a property of the product. |
| ilmastonsuojelu | Climate protection | Johdanto-osan 9 kappale mainitsee juuri tämän sanaperheen. |
| myönteinen vaikutus ympäristöön | Positive impact | Nettopositiivinen väite — yleisen ympäristöväitteen vahvin muoto. |
| sopusoinnussa luonnon kanssa | In harmony with nature | Ei mitattavissa; luetaan ympäristöhyötynä ilman sitoumusta. |
| vähentää ympäristövaikutuksia | Lower environmental impact | Vertailu ilman lähtötasoa, laajuutta ja suuruutta. |
| säästää luonnonvaroja | Resource-saving | Mitä luonnonvaraa, mihin verrattuna, kuinka paljon. |
| regeneratiivinen maatalous, uudistava maatalous | Regenerative | Matched as a phrase, not as a bare adjective. The adjective alone is ordinary vocabulary in technical and medical Finnish and carries no environmental claim. |