Eco-labelling goods still confuses consumers

Researchers have designed an eco-labelling tool to show consumers environmental information and carbon footprints generated by goods and services throughout their life cycle. It is aimed at bringing greater clarity to consumers about the environmental impact of the goods they buy, however it does not always have the desired impact on eliminating worst practice.

Aldolfo Carballo Penela, a researcher at the University of Santiago de Compostela (USC), and author of the study, said: “[The eco-labelling system] is a consolidated tool for informing society about the environmental burden of the goods we use, making it possible to differentiate between the products of different companies and organisations and, in future, to choose products that are less contaminating.

“These eco-labels on the product will make it possible to raise awareness, inform people about production methods, and to allow companies and organisations to carry out efficient environmental management,"

The study from the USC, and published in the International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, deals with some concerns recently highlighted by the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) when they looked into how to improve environmental labelling on food. The DEFRA report outlined the difficulties of producing a single “green" label for food.

The paper, ‘Effective approaches to environmental labelling of food products’ (7 February), which includes input from the University of Hertfordshire, the Food Ethics Council and the Policy Studies Institute, revealed that most existing environmental labels tell consumers how their food was produced, but they don’t measure the direct environmental impact of individual products.

Consumers are increasingly aware of sustainability of products and services. The number of different environmental labels on food, covering issues such as CO2 emissions and water use, has been growing. This has raised concerns that consumers may be confused or misled.

The DEFRA report stated that an omni-label, which accurately tells consumers the environmental impacts of specific food products, can play a more valuable, outcome based, role; however, it emphasised that at present the science is not robust enough to develop a broad omni-label.

Measuring environmental impacts is crucial to helping businesses become greener, but there are big technical challenges, such as how to standardise the data. The Government should work with industry and green groups to help improve the science and agree common metrics, stated the report.

Research from USC demonstrates a step forward in measuring these environmental impacts. It is based on a system known as the ‘method composed of financial accounts (MC3)’ which was initially designed by J.L. Doménech, a biologist at the Department of the Environment in the Port of Gijón.

Within the system, research into a product’s lifecyle provides a numerical indicator of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced and this is transferred onto the eco-label.
Carballo adapted this method to evaluate the environmental footprints of goods and services through all the phases that products pass through before reaching the final consumer , from their manufacture, to when they are thrown away or recycled.

"It would be useful to apply this system to as many goods as possible, to make it visible on all products, and for all consumers to become familiarised with this kind of information," added Carballo.

The recent report from DEFRA, stated that labelling is more effective at improving best practice than eliminating worst practice, so efforts to reduce the environmental impacts of food should not focus primarily on labelling.

"It is of key importance to achieve a productive development model that can be sustainable over the long term," stresses Carballo.

Dr Tom MacMillan, Executive Director of the Food Ethics Council, said: “It’s a fact of life that simplifying different environmental impacts clearly in one label is tricky, and shoppers will always have plenty else on their mind when they’re buying food.”

Image: Plan It Green Printing | Flickr