The Green Awards is looking for the best examples of ‘Green marketing‘, ‘Ethical advertising‘ and ‘Sustainability communications‘ from the  past 12 months. This could be for any communication, project, campaign or website etc.

To mark its fifth birthday, the Green Awards is going global. For the first time, all 17 categories will be open to entrants from all over the world.

The categories for the 2010 Global Green Awards are:

* Best Green Educational Project (Promoting Sustainable Development Issues) - NEW
* Best Fair Trade Campaign Award (Any Media) - NEW
* Best Green New Product Innovation - NEW
* Best Social Marketing Campaign Award - NEW
* Best Green Third/ Charity Sector Campaign Award
* Best Green Financial Product Award - NEW
* Best Green Advertising Award (Print & Outdoor)
* Best CSR Report Award
* Best Green Direct Response Award (Direct Mail /Drtv / Dr Radio Etc)
* Best Green Event Award (Shows / Exhibitions)
* Best Green Internal Communications Award
* Best Green Mixed Media Award (Integrated)
* Best Green Moving Image Award (Audio-Visual / Tv Spot / Short Film / Animation)
* Best Green Packaging Award
* Best Green PR Campaign Award
* Best Green Public Sector Communication Award
* Best Green Use Of Online Media Award (Banners / Social Media Campaigns / Websites)
* Green Awards Grand Prix (Awarded by the Judges)

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Companies will face tougher tests when advertising their green credentials, under proposals released recently.

The Committee of Advertising Practice, the industry’s self-regulator, proposes to expand the environmental and social responsibility sections of the broadcast advertising code, to “prevent marketers from exaggerating the environmental benefits of their products”.

The clampdown on greenwashing is part of a wider consultation into the first major changes to the advertising code in eight years.

CAP’s proposed new rules require green advertising on television to be based on the full life cycle of the advertised product or service. It also will use general principles rather than specific rules, which it says could quickly become outdated.

“Absolute claims must be supported by a high level of substantiation,” the proposed rules say, although comparative terms such as “greener” may be allowed in some circumstances.

“It provides a catchall for the unintended and the unexpected,” said Andrew Brown, chairman of CAP and BCAP, the broadcast committee.

Complaints about greenwashing have risen sharply, reflecting the increased popularity of environmental claims in advertisements. In 2006, the Advertising Standards Authority received approximately 117 complaints about 83 advertisements, rising to 561 complaints about 410 advertisements in 2007.

Environmental claims have become a “new form of competitive language for advertisers”, requiring tighter rules that provide “less excuse through ignorance and obfuscation”, said Mr Brown.

David Norman, director of campaigns at WWF UK, whose complaint against an advertisement by Royal Dutch Shell last year was upheld by the ASA, gave the change in rules a cautious welcome.

“WWF would say certainly it sounds like a good move to strengthen regulations so that those companies who do have genuine investments in green technology and answers to climate change are rewarded for that, rather than the companies who invest in marketing.”

Mr Brown said that in general, the review of advertising rules – the first to revise broadcast and general advertising codes simultaneously in their 50-year history – was designed to help broadcasters and advertisers adapt to an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

The new rules are expected to come into force next year.