Date: 27th April 2026

In the feature “Your Questions” with Charlie Weston in the Irish Independent on Saturday, 25th April the CEO of the Institute, Michael Kavanagh answered the following question from a reader:

Irish Independent - Your Money Questions: How can I be sure the investments I make are environmentally friendly?

Q I like to invest my money in companies that support environmentally friendly practices – but I am growing dubious of the various claims made by some companies around how “green” they are.

Are there any rules in place to ensure that companies can only make genuine claims around how environmentally friendly they are?

A Under the Central Bank’s new Consumer Protection Code (CPC), there is a new requirement for financial services firms to ensure that their advertising does not mislead customers on a product’s or service’s sustainability, the “green credentials” of the firm itself, or its business model.

This is to ensure that sustainable products are accurately and fairly represented to customers to avoid the risk of “greenwashing” (an attempt by companies to present their activities as environmentally friendly when in fact there is no real quantifiable basis for this claim), said the chief executive of the Compliance Institute Michael Kavanagh.

Financial institutions have been bound by this requirement since March this year, which is the date that the new CPC came into force.

There is also EU legislation in place which aims to tackle greenwashing within the asset management and fund industry and to help investors such as yourself to recognise genuine green investments.

However, the new rules now in force under the revised CPC should also help Irish consumers in this regard.

Unfortunately, we are seeing greenwashing in companies of all sizes, Mr Kavanagh says, with many “green” references being simply marketing aids rather than measurable environmental initiatives.