Researchers Agnė Šneiderienė (Klaipėda University) and Renata Legenzova (Vytautas Magnus University) have proposed a five-pillar conceptual framework for improving the effectiveness of sustainability assurance in combatting greenwashing in companies’ disclosures.
Based on a literature review they demonstrate that third-party assurance is a “powerful but not infallible tool in the fight against corporate greenwashing” as its effectiveness is dependent on a range of factors.
Šneiderienė and Legenzova highlight the importance of regulatory mandates, stakeholder engagement, independent verification, robust internal controls and advanced technological tools for preventing deceptive practices in sustainability reporting.
They argue that the combination of these pressures can create a coherent institutional force for enhancing accountability, when combined with the core principles of transparency, materiality, and verifiability.
The paper concludes: “Future research must critically examine how evolving regulatory regimes, leadership dynamics, and generative AI are simultaneously reshaping both the detection and sophistication of greenwashing.”
