Five trees simply won’t cut it. That is according to NZ-based climate change mitigation specialist Paul Young, whose calculations show a new Mazda CX-5 will burn through roughly 12.7 tonnes of CO₂ in its first five years — while those five trees absorb just 0.0015 tonnes. Young filed those figures alongside a formal greenwashing complaint lodged this week with New Zealand’s Advertising Standards Authority by Lawyers for Climate Action NZ.
Mazda’s website tells buyers the five trees will “mitigate any environmental impact from CO₂ emissions” across the warranty term. Young ran the numbers. To actually offset the CX-5’s fuel emissions, you’d need roughly 41,000 native trees — not five. Factor in full lifecycle emissions, including manufacturing, and the car is closer to 23 tonnes, against an offset of less than 2 kilograms.
“Even compared over longer timeframes, Mazda’s claims do not come anywhere close to stacking up.”
Paul Young, a climate change strategist on the case against Mazda’s tree planting and offset pleges.
It comes as New Zealand’s Climate Change Commission has called for steep reductions in transport emissions to meet legislated targets — light vehicles are responsible for the bulk of the sector, which accounted for 19 per cent of the country’s gross emissions in 2023.
Jessica Palairet, Executive Director at Lawyers for Climate Action NZ, called it textbook greenwashing. “Mazda is leveraging customers’ genuine concerns about the climate, making them feel better about buying products that contribute to climate change while grossly overstating the actual benefit of Mazda’s tree-planting programme. That is irresponsible and unfair — both to consumers trying to make informed choices, and to other companies making more accurate environmental claims.”
The complaint’s reach goes beyond Mazda. Any business running tree-planting or offset-based advertising should take note. “Marketing claims must accurately reflect what those programmes can actually achieve,” Palairet said.
