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How can we find our way around the various environmental labels?

Product eco-labelling can be used to identify greener products. This broad-based concept covers all possible cases.
The ISO (International Organization for Standardization) now lists three types of eco-label through standards belonging to the ISO 14020 series (which set out the general principles underlying eco-labelling schemes).

 

- Official eco-labels (type I eco-label, ISO 14024)
The French eco-label: the "NF Environnement" mark
The European eco-label: the EU Eco-label
The advantage lies in having the certification performed by an independent third party, thus guaranteeing that information is viewed "objectively" (it is the third-party body that declares the product to be environmentally friendly).

 

- Self-declared environmental claims (type II eco-label, ISO 14021)
This category (in which the company itself declares the greenness of its product) includes any environmental claim made by a producer (or distributor) under their sole initiative.
Self-claims usually only cover a given environmental characteristic of the product, or a single stage of its life cycle.
Self-claimed information is drafted at the companies' sole initiative and can be extremely varied.
This category includes claims that promote a genuine environmental benefit as well as claims that can be vague, inaccurate, or even downright misleading.
Standard ISO 14021 does, however, provide a guideline on how to draft self-claims. This standard is applied on a voluntary basis.

 

- Ecoprofiles (type III eco-label, ISO TR 14025)
This labelling scheme seeks to take advantage of the growing awareness of environmental issues among the general public and trade sector professionals.
It consists in providing quantitative data on a given product's environmental impacts, often presented in an instructive format (diagrams, etc.). An industrial voluntarily draws up an ecoprofile based on a product life cycle assessment (method designed to quantify a product's environmental impacts throughout its entire life cycle). This gives a snapshot of the product's environmental impacts at a given moment in time. Ecoprofiles can be regularly updated, which allows informed consumers to keep up-to-date on the progress made, according to the industrial's chosen schedule.


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