Skip to main content

GreenWatch

News and Events

Primary and Secondary research-based insights

Latest Posts

Illustration exploring whether corporate emissions reporting is overstating sustainability progress and climate performance.

Are Corporate Emissions Reporting Overstating Progress?

 Corporate climate reporting has never been more visible, yet more scrutinised. Companies publish glossy sustainability reports and CDP scores, set science‑based targets, and talk confidently about their “net‑zero pathways.” On the surface, it looks like progress. But underneath, a different picture emerges – one where companies self‑declare alignment with the...

Read More

GreenWatch in the news

Top countries and companies are greenwashing: The UAE is regulating it
Top countries and companies are greenwashing: The UAE is regulating it   

Academics at University College Dublin wanted to get to the bottom of this and thus developed algorithms to help the financial services sector detect and quantify greenwashing. “Companies are spinning one story after another,’’ said Andreas Hoepner, a professor in banking and finance at University College Dublin who is overseeing the analysis. “If no one checks them, they can say what they want. And since sustainability is such a broad term, it’s easy for companies to create a story that detracts from the real issues.”

With greenwashing widespread, Marco Magrini asks if we can accurately judge companies
With greenwashing widespread, Marco Magrini asks if we can accurately judge companies

GreenWatch, a research team at University College Dublin, has sifted through media statements, websites and marketing communications from 700 global companies using an artificial intelligence tool. It found that more than 80 per cent of statements from the industrials and materials sectors ‘have a high likelihood of greenwashing’. Many corporations pledge to reach the promised land of net zero emissions by 2050, at a time when all of their top executives will be retired  around).

News article discussing the use of artificial intelligence to assess whether companies’ sustainability claims are genuinely green.
“Sustainability” Who has the final say? Professors use AI to check: whether the company is green
As the awareness of sustainability rises, doubts about whether companies are “greenwashing” have also risen. Picture/unsplash. With the rise of sustainability awareness, the media is flooded with messages that companies are actively taking sustainable actions-how to respond to climate change, how to reduce waste, how to increase recycling rates, and so on
GreenWatch logo featuring a magnifying glass symbolising the detection of corporate greenwashing and sustainability claims.
 GreenWatch arrives, an app to measure the sustainability of companies

GreenWatch is a software used by the financial services industry to assess and monitor the authenticity of green, climate-friendly statements communicated by companies on their website, rather than in their publications, or in their social balance sheets.

UCD Business faculty news announcing the Open Scientists’ Letter on financing fossil fuels.
 
Encouraging the Financing of New Fossil Fuel Infrastructure by including Fossil Gas in the EU Green Taxonomy is not Compatible with a 1.5°C World.

A group of scientists led by UCD College of Business faculty Theodor CojoianuAndreas HoepnerFabiola Schneider and Joeri Rogelj from Imperial College London, have warned that encouraging the financing of new fossil fuel infrastructure by including fossil gas in the EU Green Taxonomy is not compatible with a 1.5°C world. 

Daily ESG Briefing covering collaboration between GRI and EFRAG on biodiversity reporting standards.
Daily ESG Briefing: GRI and EFRAG team up on biodiversity reporting standards

The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) and the Global Reporting Initiative have joined forces on new biodiversity
standards. The pair will join each other’s technical expert groups, share information and align their work plans as part of the project. 

Quote from Dr. Georgiana Ifrim on identifying unsupported corporate climate claims and greenhouse gas emissions reductions.
GreenWatch: Al Calls out Greenwashing Companies

Artificial intelligence is discovering which companies are walking the sustainability walk, and which ones are just talking. GreenWatch, an algorithm-based tool developed at University College Dublin (UCD), is inspired and funded in part by Science Foundation Ireland, whose call to action, “AI for Societal Good,” invites teams to solve important challenges with artificial intelligence. “GreenWatch aims to detect greenwashing companies, in order to better measure progress toward the UN’s sustainable development goals,” Georgiana Ifrim, Ph.D., associate professor at UCD’s School of Computer Science.

Climate protesters demonstrating against climate change denial and calling for stronger environmental action.
What is greenwashing and what can you do about it?

The term greenwashing has been thrown about a lot recently, but what actually is it and what can you do about it? With COP26 taking place and activists pushing for more effective action on climate change, governments, companies and individuals are feeling the pressure to live up to expectations. Unfortunately, this can encourage exaggerated claims and consequent accusations of a phenomenon named ‘greenwashing.’ 

 

 

IEEFA report discussing sustainable finance taxonomies in Asia and the greenwashing risks of classifying gas power as sustainable investment.
Asian Hopes for Sustainable Finance Will Rest on More Credible Taxonomies

Accepting Gas Power Plants as Sustainable Investments Heightens Greenwash Risk. Almost all company statements and reports globally—including about half of the
statements from the energy sector—contain a high likelihood of misleading claims
about a company’s environmental awareness according to research led by Professor
Andreas Hoepner at University College Dublin.

Server network and data cables representing AI infrastructure, data processing and sustainability analytics.
Using Artificial Intelligence to Sniff Out Corporate Greenwashers

GreenWatch is a new tool for investors worried that some sustainability claims are too good to be true. 

Barely a day goes by without a company talking up their green credentials—how they’re aligning themselves with global climate goals, cutting waste and upping their recycling. With all this corporate happy-talk about saving the planet on the rise, so are concerns about greenwashing.

Computer keyboard with greenwashing key symbolising digital detection of misleading sustainability claims.
Science to the Rescue: AI to fight greenwashing

In order to help catapult Irish innovation to the world stage, and effect change globally, Science Foundation Ireland have launched the Future Innovator Prize.

With €4m available across two challenges – AI for Societal Good and Zero Emissions. This competition offers Irish science the money to match its ambition. Challenge-based funding is a solution-focused approach to research funding that uses prizes, strict timelines, teamwork and competition to direct research activities at ambitious societal problems

GreenWatch research paper on using artificial intelligence to detect corporate greenwashing and misleading sustainability claims.
 
Greenwatch-shing: Using AI to Detect Greenwashing

The rise of fake news on the Internet has shown that society has few defence mechanisms to cope with misinformation as well as limited abilities to regulate its attention towards inaccurate or sometimes outright false claims, no matter the topic of such content.