Consumer products and the environment: green labels and claims
Why green labels?
Most products make some impact on the environment at different stages of their lives. Many companies and organisations are working to develop greener products.
At European level, for example, the European Commission adopted a Communication on Integrated Product Policy (IPP) in 2003 aimed at improving the environmental performance of products and services throughout their life-cycles. As part of this work it has launched a project to identify those products or product groups that have the greatest environmental impact from a life-cycle perspective.
Labels are a way of helping consumers to recognise products which meet specific environmental criteria to address environmental impacts. Well-known schemes include the Commission's own European Ecolabel.
Labels may serve several functions, in terms of providing information to consumers, and in marketing products, and may benefit companies, their customers, society generally, and the environment specifically.
These aspects depend on the kind of organisation which develops the label, the type of business that the label is aimed at, and who is intended to take notice of the label (a business or a domestic consumer, for example).
The main uses of green labels are that:
- they can act as a catalyst in promoting better environmental standards within a specific product sector or geographical area
- they may raise awareness of environmental issues
- they can help consumers to identify products which meet certain standards
- they can promote the image of the company as one which cares about the environment and the consumer
- they can help products to stand out in a competitive marketplace
- they can be used in advertising
- meeting a specific standard can help manufacturers when tendering for contracts (public procurement contracts cannot normally require products to have been awarded a specific label, but they can specify standards which are the same as those required by a label)
Page published: 11 October 2005