Environmental brands have been experiencing rapid growth for several decades. How many exist in the world today? What improvement do they certify? Which countries are they most popular in? What kind of organizations are they managed by? This paper aims to inventory and analyse the salient features of the identified labels, distinguishing them by country, type of organization that manages the brand, industrial sector to which certified products and services belong, environmental benefit provided. From this analysis result is a very large number of “multi-criteria” labels, which certify that is, two or more categories of environmental benefits, while a minor part only focuses on a carbon friendly or fair trade, for example. Among the latter, historical brands mainly certify organic agriculture, while the most numerous and most recent focus on climate change. Environmental labels are generally used in traditionally more industrialized countries, particularly North America and Germany. However, even in the newly industrialized countries, there is a fair number of environmental labels. The organizations that manage the brands are mainly nonprofits. The product sectors in which the use of labels is greatest are the food and construction products sectors. This first analysis opens up a wide range of issues on the effectiveness, their number, the transparency of information transmitted from the analysed brands, as well as knowledge of the information contained therein on the part of buyers.
Environmental label: a survey
Ornella Malandrino
2020-01-01
Abstract
Environmental brands have been experiencing rapid growth for several decades. How many exist in the world today? What improvement do they certify? Which countries are they most popular in? What kind of organizations are they managed by? This paper aims to inventory and analyse the salient features of the identified labels, distinguishing them by country, type of organization that manages the brand, industrial sector to which certified products and services belong, environmental benefit provided. From this analysis result is a very large number of “multi-criteria” labels, which certify that is, two or more categories of environmental benefits, while a minor part only focuses on a carbon friendly or fair trade, for example. Among the latter, historical brands mainly certify organic agriculture, while the most numerous and most recent focus on climate change. Environmental labels are generally used in traditionally more industrialized countries, particularly North America and Germany. However, even in the newly industrialized countries, there is a fair number of environmental labels. The organizations that manage the brands are mainly nonprofits. The product sectors in which the use of labels is greatest are the food and construction products sectors. This first analysis opens up a wide range of issues on the effectiveness, their number, the transparency of information transmitted from the analysed brands, as well as knowledge of the information contained therein on the part of buyers.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
