Business ProfileforMaple Leaf Railings

On June 10, 20201 BBB contacted Maple Leaf Railings with a request for more information about the following claim made on the company’s website http://mapleleafrailing.com/:

• The powder coating doesn’t require Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and helps us protect the environment. Additionally, it eliminates the need of yearly painting and requires minimal maintenance.

BBB also reached out to Maple Leaf Railings with letters on June 10, 2021 and June 29, 2021 to receive substantiations on their claims.

BBB’s Code of Advertising states, 36. Environmental Benefit Claims


36.1 General Principles 
36.1.1 Advertisers should not make broad, unqualified general environmental benefit claims like “green” or “eco-friendly.” 
36.1.2 Advertisers must qualify general claims with specific environmental benefits. 
36.1.3 Advertisers must possess competent and reliable evidence (often scientific evidence) to support all environmental benefit claims. Qualifications for any claim must be clear, conspicuous and understandable. 
36.1.4 When an advertiser qualifies a general claim with a specific benefit, the benefit should be significant. Advertisers must not highlight small or unimportant benefits. 
36.1.5 Unless clear from the context, any environmental claim must specify clearly and conspicuously whether the claim applies to the product, the product’s packaging, a service or just to a portion of the product, package or service. 
36.4 Non-toxic 
36.4.1 Non-toxic claims likely convey that a product, package or service is non-toxic both for humans and for the environment generally. Thus advertisers must either possess competent and reliable scientific evidence that this is the case or clearly and conspicuously qualify the claim to avoid confusion.
As of July 13, 2021, the BBB has not received any response to the requested information and the website  appears unmodified.