Green Ecolabeling

Global warming has been recognised as a major challenge all over the world. In order to curb global warming and its adverse effects more and more organization are transforming the way they have been doing the businesses. Thus the concept of environmental labelling has emerged and such labels can be useful tools at the hands of consumers, manufacturers, marketers and government and non government organizations. The purpose of this article is to give an overview of environmental labels. This article is about non-binding voluntary eco labels. The article begins with defining of eco labels, a brief history and then describes different types of eco labels their benefits and disadvantages and eco labelling programs around the world and how consumers can make good use of eco labels. It also find what role consumer awareness plays in success or failure of an eco label.

1997

Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 2021

The International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2020

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2007

Ecolabels have emerged as one of the main tools of green marketing. Although a great deal of effort has been invested in making them more effective and efficient, the market share of ecolabelled products is still low, partly because they have been addressed mainly to 'green' consumers. In a theoretical exposition of marketing theory, we find that green marketing could learn from conventional marketing in discovering other means than labelling to promote green products. Examples include addressing a wider range of consumers, working with the positioning strategies of price, place and promotion and actively engaging in market creation.

International Journal of Product Development, 2008

The last years promoted new policy instruments based on cooperation and aiming at a higher degree of voluntariness and self-regulation. Eco-labelling is a typical instrument applied in this context. Eco-labels award and promote environmentally superior goods and services and offer information on their quality and performance with respect to consumer health, resource consumption, and environmental impacts. We present an overview on the history and 'landscape' of eco-labels and explain objectives and mechanisms. Later, we examine potentials and experiences within business. In the following, an empirical view on the state, successes and failures of eco-labelling -primarily based on a meso-and macro-economic view -is presented. We close with consequences and challenges for strengthening eco-labelling.

International Journal of Life Cycle Assessment, 2004

Abstract The goal of the different national and supranational ecolabelling programs is to encourage consumers to choose products which are the least damaging to the environment. It is clear that the involvement of product and service users is essential to the establishment of sustainable consumption patterns. For this reason, ecolabelling must necessarily limit any risks of uncertainty. To this end, labels must take into account all the impacts of a product’s life cycle and use a reliable and verifiable evaluation method. In general, the organizations in charge of ecolabelling programs claim that a multi-criteria approach is used to define the exact labelling criteria appropriate for the product categories in question. These organizations generally maintain that their approach is based on the completion of exhaustive and complete life cycle analyses, which take into account all of the impacts caused by a product throughout its life cycle. And yet, the real situation is often far less clear-cut, and these simplified approaches, which tend to reconcile economic realism and methodological coherence, constitute the usual procedure for criteria definition. Thus, the procedures involved in criteria development often rely on a ‘semi-qualitative’ approach to the life cycle which uses both qualitative and quantitative data in order to identify the product’s significant stages on the environment. Presently, the ecolabel is a ‘non-verifiable expert property’ for the consumer. The ecolabel’s lack of objectivity in its criteria and its lack of transparency, resulting from non standardized methods whose accuracy cannot be measured, can only damage this sustainable development tool’s credibility. In effect, the primary hindrance to ecolabel development lies precisely within this difficulty of finding a compromise between economic feasibility and the scientific and methodological rigor which are indispensable to the label’s credibility and veracity.

Law, Probability and Risk, 2005

The general disenchantment with command-and-control mechanisms led to pressure to experiment with tools of deregulation which encourage the desired behaviour through financial incentives rather than through legal coercion. Eco-labelling can be seen as a representation of this trend to deregulate environmental protection by allowing industry to make the decision of whether or not to apply for the label and allowing consumers to decide to shop accordingly. Eco-labelling aims to identify and promote products that have a reduced environmental impact when compared to other similar products. It is a voluntary method of environmental performance certification and labelling that is practised around the world and functions through the co-operation of the three sectors: industry, consumers and eco-labelling authority. This paper will look at Germany's Blue Angel, a national eco-label, and the European Flower, the eco-label for the European Union, to determine whether eco-labelling can be considered a successful mechanism of deregulation.

International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, 2019

In many countries, various eco-labels have emerged for informing consumers about the environmental impact of the offered products. Using recent advances in the empirical and theoretical literature, this review questions the efficiency of eco-labeling. We combine a literature review with discussions of empirical examples. We underline the limitations of eco-labels for signaling credible information to consumers. In particular, both the complexity and the proliferation of eco-labels are likely to hamper their efficiency in guiding consumers. From a regulatory perspective, several studies show that eco-labels are useful, but they cannot be considered a panacea for improving environmental quality. Indeed, it is often socially optimal to combine eco-labels with other regulatory tools such as standards banning polluting products and tax/subsidy mechanisms depending on the environmental quality. The conclusion suggests research priorities for tackling unanswered questions.