Unit 2: The future of Ecolabelling

The importance of the role of product labelling in those public policies that aim at improving the safety, environmental efficiency and quality of consumer products has progressively increased since the late 1970s (Iraldo et all., 2020). Giving proper information to the customer enables the best purchasing decision. The beginning of the 1980s was marked by an increasing appearance of label brands and other logos that are exploited to highlight the presumed environmental quality of the product. The spread of private ‘green labels’ led policymakers to understand firstly the potential of such labels in pursuing aims of collective interest and, secondly, the need to give order and rules to the ecolabelling universe (Iraldo et al., 2020). Thanks to this steady growth, many countries have started to plan their own national ecolabelling program[1] to respond to the need for clarity on the part of consumers and direct them towards the right path to follow for sustainable recycling of plastics.

These ecolabelling programs (for example from the older Blauer Engel, Nordic Swan, EU Ecolabel to the more recent ecolabelling schemes adopted in emerging economies, such as the Green Product Certification India) aim to provide reliable information to everyone and were designed to encourage companies to improve their products from an environmental point of view (especially through technological innovation). Within all ecolabelling programs products that meet certain environmental criteria can be granted a label that indicates their better environmental performance (Iraldo et al., 2020).  Despite the efforts of governments and others, ecolabels have faced numerous challenges and difficulties in securing and achieving the much aspired-for environmental sustainability. Among the main abilities of ecolabelling that are challenged, one is whether they can really change consumption and production patterns. Are ecolabels currently used by companies that obtained them as a tool to help improve their environmental performance? Are these companies effectively employing ecolabels as a marketing tool? (Iraldo et al., 2020).

Competitive and economic benefits can be an effective driver for adopting an ecolabel, but in many cases, it is not just a problem of being aware of an ecolabel. Please find some examples of ecolabels listed below:

The Austrian Ecolabel for Products (Österreichisches Umweltzeichen)

The “Austrian Ecolabel” was created on the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Environment in 1990. This label provides the general public with information on the environmental impact of consumer goods that arises from their production, usage and disposal and attracts the attention of consumers to alternative environmentally friendly products.

Criteria:

The products and/or services for which guidelines have been drafted are subject to a holistic evaluation. In this context not only the environmental effects of the use of a product or a service but also the production process, disposal as well quality and fitness for use (“lifecycle”) are recorded. The following points can be considered to be the basis for evaluating the environmental compatibility of products:

• Consumption of raw materials and energy
• Toxicity of ingredients
• Emissions (e.g. exhaust gases, sewage, noise)
• Disposal/recycling (waste, suitability for recycling)
• Packaging
• Distribution and transportation (as required)

Quality, safety, longevity, ease of repair. Furthermore, we can now remember the previously discussed Nordic Swan Ecolabel.

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel[2] is one of the world’s toughest environmental certifications – and as such, a powerful tool for producers and brand owners. It offers:

• A recipe on how to reduce the environmental impact from production and consumption of goods.
• A credible, third-party certified guidance for their consumers and professional buyers to choose goods and services that are among the environmentally best.

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel was established in 1989 by The Nordic Council of Ministers as a voluntary ecolabelling scheme for the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.

The goal was to enable consumers and professional buyers to choose the environmentally best goods and services by giving an effective tool to help companies develop more sustainable products and services.

“The Swan Effect”:

As forerunner companies in different branches have wanted to take a lead in the development towards a more sustainable world, it is now possible to obtain a Nordic Swan Ecolabel certification within 56 different product areas, counting more than 200 different product types.

The process of obtaining a Nordic Swan Ecolabel is difficult and long, and therefore only the most compromised companies succeed in it. However, in doing so, those companies show the way for others to do it; those Ecolabel companies are paving the way for others to follow.

Following the Nordic Council of Minister’s vision of making “the Nordic region the most sustainable and integrated region in the world” is what we call “the Swan Effect”. Today more than 25.000 Nordic Swan Ecolabel products and services are sold in the Nordic countries, and the rest of the world is asking for them[3].

[1] Since the mid-1980s, several countries have set up national type ecolabelling programmes, also in response to the need for clarity and certainty of consumers and businesses who were confronted with the confusion of an ever-widening plethora of private brands

[2] https://www.nordic-swan-ecolabel.org/official-nordic-ecolabel/

[3] Some interesting information about labelling can be also found here: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/canadian-environmental-protection-act-registry/recycled-content-labelling-rules-plastics.html#toc30