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What we learned from our first Anti-Greenwash Charter Campaign Review

By Malin Cunningham

September 2026

Back in August 2025, we became a signatory of the Anti-Greenwash Charter, publishing our Green Claims Policy alongside it and committing to an annual, independent review of one of our live campaigns against that policy.

We talk a lot to clients and course attendees about transparency in communications so our first Campaign Review with the Charter was a real test of us walking the talk.

As it turns out, it was a real mix of celebration (yes, we’re compliant!) but also a real reminder of the dangers of ‘cobbler’s shoes’.

As PR consultants, we spend most of our time delivering for clients rather than running our own campaigns so finding something to submit took a bit of thought. The obvious choice was the launch and promotion of Spill the (Green) Tea, the podcast I cohost with Katie Treggiden.

The outcome was compliant across all seven pillars of the Charter’s Evidence Framework, which I’m really pleased about. But there were some very useful and reassuringly nitpicky learnings along the way.

The first thing flagged was our Podcast colour scheme. Before we launched, Katie and I had to agree on a look and feel for the platform. Something that represented both of us, didn’t feel too branded - nor was too ‘on brand’ for either of our individual businesses to be confusing.

The compromise was a simple cutout of us both with a leading light greyish green colour - a natural fit for a sustainability-themed discussion platform. But, of course, it's also the kind of colour that can be considered as 'eco signalling', something that Katie and I were well aware of as you would expect.

However, this wasn’t captured as part of our discussion nor the anti-greenwashing process; we simply agreed on the design and colour. Had it been a client campaign, I know that we wouldn’t have missed that important step - and it’s definitely front of mind going forward.

Reminders of best practice

Two smaller things also came up that didn’t affect our compliance, but are important reminders of best practice:

Our policy commits to carrying the Certified Signatory Declaration on relevant campaigns. It is currently on our website footer but it wasn't included in the individual episode pages or in our social captions.
We referenced a third-party statistic without linking the source. It wasn't a claim about us, just commentary on someone else's good news but it should have carried a link regardless.

There's definitely something grounding about being on the receiving end of the questions we ask clients every day: where did this come from, who signed this off, can you show your workings out. It's made us think harder about how well we document our decisions about Hattrick’s own content internally.

It’s also been a reassuring review in that the Anti-Greenwash Charter itself really delivers on its own ambition to help organisations build trust by being open and honest about their sustainability journey to build trust and credibility. Or ‘Progress over Perfection’ as Katie and I would frame it.

If you would like support with how your organisation talks about sustainability get in touch. We'd love to help. More information about The Anti-Greenwash Charter.