Environmental labels have been experiencing rapid growth for several dec-ades. How many of them exist in the world today? What kind of improvement are they for? Which countries are they most popular in? What kind of organizations are they managed by? This paper aims to inventory and analyse the salient fea-tures of the identified labels by distinguishing them according to: countries; type of organization that manages the label; industrial sectors to which certified prod-ucts and services belong and environmental benefit provided. The result of the analysis pinpoints a very large number of "multi-criteria" labels (which certify two or more environmental benefits). Whereas, a minor part of them is only fo-cused on one categories such as carbon friendly or fair trade. Among the mono criterion labels the historical ones mainly certify organic agriculture, while the most numerous and the most recent focus on climate change. Environmental la-bels are generally used in long-standing 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 labels are mainly non-profits. Food and construction sectors mainly use environ-mental labels. This first analysis opens up a wide range of issues such as their ef-fectiveness, their number, the transparency of the information transmitted in or-der to reach buyers and consumers efficiently.

Environmental Label: a Survey.

Miriam Spalatro
;
Giulio Cappelletti;
2020-01-01

Abstract

Environmental labels have been experiencing rapid growth for several dec-ades. How many of them exist in the world today? What kind of improvement are they for? Which countries are they most popular in? What kind of organizations are they managed by? This paper aims to inventory and analyse the salient fea-tures of the identified labels by distinguishing them according to: countries; type of organization that manages the label; industrial sectors to which certified prod-ucts and services belong and environmental benefit provided. The result of the analysis pinpoints a very large number of "multi-criteria" labels (which certify two or more environmental benefits). Whereas, a minor part of them is only fo-cused on one categories such as carbon friendly or fair trade. Among the mono criterion labels the historical ones mainly certify organic agriculture, while the most numerous and the most recent focus on climate change. Environmental la-bels are generally used in long-standing 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 labels are mainly non-profits. Food and construction sectors mainly use environ-mental labels. This first analysis opens up a wide range of issues such as their ef-fectiveness, their number, the transparency of the information transmitted in or-der to reach buyers and consumers efficiently.
2020
978-88-351-0527-5
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11369/386112
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