Wedoany.com Report-Oct 30 , Vodafone is the latest company to remove promotional material claiming it used 100pc renewable energy following a complaint that it was “greenwashing”.

The phone and internet company was reported to the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) by Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan, who said its environmental claims did not stand up.

The ASAI did not conduct a full investigation because Vodafone agreed to withdraw the claims voluntarily. However, while the company removed the claims from its own publicity materials, they still appear on digital publications and websites that repeated them.

Ms Boylan said there needed to be a much tougher and more thorough way of dealing with unsubstantiated environmental claims.

She criticised the ASAI for not opening a formal investigation, which meant details of the case were not published and no finding against the company was recorded.

“Ireland’s consumers deserve transparency and honesty when it comes to the environmental claims made by corporations,” she said.

“It is deeply concerning that the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland has allowed Vodafone to escape proper public scrutiny by opting for an informal investigation.”

The claims were made in a press release on the company website and on in-store advertisements.

They boasted that the network was “powered by 100pc renewable energy”.

The company stated: “Vodafone customers across Ireland can be assured that the connectivity they use is powered by electricity from renewable sources.”

It referred to Vodafone’s “entire European operations – including mobile and fixed networks, data centres, retail and offices” being 100pc powered by electricity from renewable sources.

Vodafone made its claims based on its purchase of “guarantees of origin” – certificates for renewable electricity generated by wind, solar or hydro somewhere in Europe in equivalent amounts to that used by the company.

In practice, the power the company actually used would have been generated by the normal mix of gas, oil, coal and renewables that applies to all electricity on the Irish grid.

It is legal for companies to use these certificates, but the ASAI has ruled in similar cases that they are misleading to customers, who would not typically be familiar with the process behind them.

The ASAI has applied this finding in cases taken by Ms Boylan against Energia, SSE Airtricity, Budweiser and others.

Ms Boylan said she was particularly concerned that Vodafone claimed its data centres were powered by 100pc renewables when its Dublin facility was licensed as a greenhouse gas emitter because it had diesel generators.