A new report from ESG data science company RepRisk has found that airlines top the list for repeated greenwashing.
“Greenwashing is becoming a recurring feature of business conduct,” RepRisk said in its report. “Airlines illustrate this persistence: nearly seven in 10 companies in the airlines sector flagged for greenwashing risk in 2024 were flagged again in 2025.”
The automobile industry followed in second place, with just over five in 10 companies repeating greenwashing in 2025. Technology and mining sectors also showed similar patterns.
Greenwashing is defined as when a company makes unsubstantiated, untrue, or misleading claims about the environmental benefits of its activities.
Typically, companies engage this behaviour in order to appeal to customers and investors. While these actions may be well-intentioned, and may be the result of external pressure, RepRisk said that misinformation of this kind can “create an operational risk”.
RepRisk said that repeated instances of greenwashing by a company, as opposed to a single error of judgement, signal a “structural governance failure”.
“These repeat appearances may signal more than temporary lapses in communication, suggesting scope to embed greenwashing risk management into core business practices,” the report said.
The report brings to mind Virgin Atlantic’s sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) radio advertisement, which faced complaints that were upheld by a UK advertising authority last year.
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) had received five complaints against the advertisement – first heard on November 24, 2023 – claiming the “100% sustainable aviation fuel” statement had given a “misleading impression of the fuel’s environmental impact”.
The advert had been describing its then upcoming Flight100. The flight had taken off on November 28, 2023, from London Heathrow to JFK using 100% SAF.
The ruling found that — while Virgin was correct in stating that it flew the non-commercial flight on 100% SAF — some listeners may have misunderstood the claim to mean that the flight was 100% sustainable.
The ruling in August last year did not impose any fines on Virgin. Instead, it banned the advert and told the airline to include additional and accurate information on SAF and its environmental impact in future green advertising.
The RepRisk report notes that companies in the UK can be fined up to 10% of annual turnover for misleading practices, including misleading environmental claims. This follows the enforcement of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act in 2025.
The 2025 report uses data from July 1 to June 30 for all years from 2020 through 2025. The research analyses over 2.5 million documents in 23 languages from over 150,000 public sources and stakeholders, according to RepRisk.
The data company excludes company self-disclosures in its data generation to ensure more accurate risk assessments.