Checklist · Climate, ESG & Sustainability Reporting
Greenwashing review checklist for environmental and sustainability claims
Pre-publication checklist for environmental, climate and sustainability claims in marketing, product disclosure and corporate reporting, mapped to the ACCC's eight principles, the ASIC greenwashing guidance and the misleading conduct provisions.
- Kind
- Checklist. Steps or checks to work through and tick off.
- Where it applies
- Australia
- AI use
- Red Keep AI out of the decisive steps. A lawyer does the work.
- Law stated as at
- 17 October 2026
- Status
- Maintained. Checked on 17 October 2026 against the 8 authorities it cites, for Australia.
- Version
- 1
- Source
- Written for this library
When to use it
Use before a client publishes environmental or sustainability claims about products, services, financial products or the business. Not a substitute for substantiation evidence or for advice on product disclosure document content.
How AI may be used
Lawyer-led for the judgment. AI may collect claims from identified materials and list the evidence the client holds beside each one, but whether a claim is misleading or adequately substantiated is a legal judgment.
AI may
- Extract every environmental or sustainability claim from the pages, decks or documents the lawyer identifies, with location references.
- List beside each claim the evidence the client says supports it, and flag claims with no evidence listed.
- Flag broad or absolute terms (for example 'green', 'sustainable', 'carbon neutral', 'net zero') for the lawyer's attention.
AI must not
- Must not decide whether a claim is misleading, substantiated or compliant.
- Must not rewrite claims for publication without lawyer review.
- Must not create or summarise scientific or certification evidence the client has not supplied.
The lawyer checks
- Each claim's overall impression to the ordinary consumer or investor, including visuals.
- Evidence is current, relevant to the claim's scope and, where possible, independent.
- Future claims (targets, net zero) have reasonable grounds and a documented plan.
- Consistency with the sustainability report, PDS, ASX announcements and website.
Method: how the Green, Yellow and Red levels are decided. This is guidance for planning, not legal advice.
Official form
Open the official form. Always use the current version from the issuer.
Read the full text
The full text is for signed-in accounts. It is free. When you sign in you can:
- read the whole precedent, with its drafting notes beside it;
- copy it, or download it as a Word file or Markdown;
- add it to your firm’s knowledge base, so colleagues can find it;
- let the AI tools you connect read it from that knowledge base.
The summary, the law it rests on and the AI-use guidance above stay public. Privacy.
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- Verification protocol for AI-extracted emissions data and AI-drafted sustainability disclosures
- Modern slavery and human rights supplier clause with audit rights
- Board paper: directors' declaration on the sustainability report
- Prompt template: climate disclosure gap list and first-draft narrative (with guardrails)
All precedents for Climate, ESG & Sustainability Reporting · Tasks and AI use in this area