Abstract
This commentary situates the analysis of greenwashing within the broader regulatory transformation of corporate environmental responsibility, particularly as shaped by regulatory mechanisms such as the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CS3D). Rather than treating greenwashing as a problem of deceptive marketing alone, this study reframes it as an entry point into the epistemic politics of environmental claims. In doing so, it foregrounds how sustainability-related assertions—especially those embedded in due diligence frameworks—are not merely legal obligations but complex knowledge practices crafted within and across fragmented global value chains (GVCs).
Starting with a conceptual account of GVCs and their fragmented governance structure, the commentary explores the challenges these pose for legal oversight, particularly when corporations retain broad discretion in operationalising legal norms through technocratic tools, indicators and internal audits. The emerging EU regulatory landscape seeks to standardise corporate sustainability practices through systemic instruments like the CS3D and Green Claims Directive. Yet these efforts often fail to address how legal norms are co-produced with scientific and managerial logics, giving rise to new forms of opacity and discretion under the guise of compliance.
The core hypothesis guiding this commentary is that green claims—especially those framed as due diligence obligations—are not simply legal outputs but epistemic constructs. By mobilising insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS) and legal theory, this submission proposes a hybrid analytical framework to uncover how legal and scientific authority are jointly assembled in practice. Through this lens, due diligence emerges not just as a governance tool, but as a site of epistemic contestation, where meanings of ‘impact’, ‘risk’ and ‘compliance’ are continuously negotiated.
Luca Tenreira, Greenwashing Investigated in the Landscape of Global Value Chains, Journal of Environmental Law, 2025 (2), https://doi.org/10.1093/jel/eqaf018