Eco-Labeling

Green Stickers on consumer goods have been evolving since the 1970s. The main drivers have been energy and fuel consumption. These stickers first started appearing on major appliances after government agencies in the United States and Canada legislated their requirement. Manufacturers are also required to meet minimum standards of energy use. The automobile industry in North America is required to meet a minimum emissions standard. This led to fuel efficiency labels being placed on new automobiles sold. The major appliance manufactures were required to use standard testing practices and place clear labels on products. The International Organization for Standardization has developed standards for addressing environmental labelling with the ISO 14000 family which grew out of ISO's commitment to support the objective of sustainable development discussed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, in Rio de Janeiro, in 1992.

Green Labelling worldwide is moving beyond traditional country borders. Most of these initiatives are voluntary Eco-labels, however there is an initiative under way in North America to broaden the scope of Green Stickers to include other consumer goods.

Ecolabels and Green Stickers are labelling systems for food and consumer products. Ecolabels are often voluntary, but green stickers are mandated by law in North America for major appliances and automobiles. They are a form of sustainability measurement directed at consumers, intended to make it easy to take environmental concerns into account when shopping. Some labels quantify pollution or energy consumption by way of index scores or units of measurement; others simply assert compliance with a set of practices or minimum requirements for sustainability or reduction of harm to the environment.

Ecolabelling systems exist for both food and consumer products. Both systems were started by NGOs but nowadays the European Union have legislation for the rules of ecolabelling and also have their own ecolabels, one for food and one for consumer products. At least for food, the ecolabel is nearly identical with the common NGO definition of the rules for ecolabelling. Trust in the label is an issue for consumers, as manufacturers or manufacturing associations could set up "rubber stamp" labels to greenwash their products.

There are several logo types:

General claims

Such as “chlorine free”, “eco-friendly” or other generic terms. This type is most likely guilty of greenwashing and is not an independently validated claim.

Type I Ecolabel

Provide a 'seal of approval' where a licence is given to use the ecolabel logo on products which have met the specification, been independently audited and consider life-cycle environmental impacts over the whole life-cycle. Type I ecolabels, such as the Nordic Ecolabel, are thus an indicator of overall environmental preference in that product category.

Type II Ecolabel

These are self-declarations, not involving independent audit (e.g. the 'recyclable/recycled' Mobius loop symbol)

Type III Ecolabel

Type III ecolabels are operated by third parties and involve independent audits which includes information about the environmental impacts associated with a product or service, such as raw material acquisition, energy use and efficiency, content of materials and chemical substances, emissions to air, soil and water and waste generation. It also includes product and company information.

The international EPD® system is a member of the Global Type III Environmental Product Declarations Network and is a standardized (ISO 14025/TR) and Life Cycle Assessment. (LCA) based tool to communicate the environmental performance of a product or system.