Ecolabels and green stickers are labeling systems for food and consumer products. The use of ecolabels is voluntary, whereas green stickers are mandated by law; for example, in North America major appliances and automobiles use Energy Star.
They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers, intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping.
Some labels quantify pollution or energy consumption by way of index scores or units of measurement, while others assert compliance with a set of practices or minimum requirements for sustainability or reduction of harm to the environment.
Many ecolabels are focused on minimizing the negative ecological impacts of primary production or resource extraction in a given sector or commodity through a set of good practices that are captured in a sustainability standard. Through a verification process, usually referred to as “certification”, a farm, forest, fishery, or mine can show that it complies with a standard and earn the right to sell its products as certified through the supply chain, often resulting in a consumer-facing ecolabel.
Ecolabeling Innovation Cycle
The ecolabeling process is a cyclical process in which consumers, firms, governments and institutions interact to contribute to the development of sustainable and ecological ways of production and consumption.
In this process, consumers’ environmental expectations are met; firms increase their created and captured value and enhance their sustainability, and governments and institutions foster cleaner production and consumption.
This process is tangible in the products through the awarding of ecolabels, which are visibly displayed on goods and services.
Environmental Governance
Consumer desires for sustainable consumption is driving the global marketplace with desire to regulate product production. The globalization of economies is shifting control of sustainability away from traditional command and control measures imposed by governments towards market governance, which is a self-regulatory new environmental policy instrument, ecolabelling.
International Organization for Standardization for Environmental Labeling and Practices
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has created standards for labeling practices within the ISO 14000 schema.
ISO proposed three categories of environmental labels according to the aspects covered and the rigor required to award the seal: type I in ISO 14024; type II in ISO 14021; and type III in ISO 14025:
Type I (ISO 14024) is a voluntary multi-criteria ecolabel program assessed by an independent third party who considers the life cycle impacts of a product. Awarded certification authorizes the use of environmental labels on products and indicates overall environmental preferability of a product within a product category. The awarding body may be either a governmental organization or a private non-commercial entity. (e.g. EU Ecolabel, Nordic swan and German Blue Angel)
Type II (ISO 14021) is a self-declared claim made by manufacturers or retailers without third-party auditing. Developed internally by companies’ claims can take the form of a declaration, a logo, or a commercial.
Type III (ISO/TR 14025) an environmental product declaration consisting of quantified product information on the life cycle impacts. Instead of assessing or weighting the environmental performance of a product this type of label only shows the objective data, facilitating product comparison among buyers.
Additionally, a different category called “Type I – like” is present in the literature, which represents environmental labels focused on just one environmental or social aspect. These labels have been launched by independent organizations. Type I-like or “single issue labels” can be based on a pass/fail criterion, for example setting a maximum level of energy consumption for electric appliances (like the Energy Star label) or guaranteeing a responsible management of the world forests (like the Forest Stewardship Council); other single issue labels assess the performance of the product on a range, for example grading its energy or water efficiency.
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