for 20

Foreword
Acknowledgements

1 Introduction

1.1 Background
1.2 Outline and content of this volume
1.4 Background information on research process

2 Background: theoretical contributions, eco-labels and environmental policy

2.1 Introduction
2.2 Relevant theoretical contributions from social sciences
2.2.1 Ecological modernisation
2.2.2 Attitudes and behaviour
2.2.3 The risk society
2.2.4 The dream society
2.2.5 Ordinary consumption, consumption and everyday life
2.2.6 Concluding remarks: EPIS and the recent trends in social sciences
2.3 Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS): definitions and classification
2.3.1 EPIS: coping with asymmetric information allocation
2.3.2 Towards a classification of EPIS
2.4 Integrated Product Policy (IPP): approach, state and plans
2.4.1 The shift towards products
2.4.2 Integrated Product Policy in general
2.4.3 Integrated Product Policy and the European Union

3 Environmental product information schemes (EPIS): an overview

3.1 Introduction
3.2 Institutionalisation phase
3.2.1 Mandatory labels
3.2.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels
3.2.3 EPIS as self-declaration
3.2.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information
3.3 Selection phase
3.3.1 Mandatory labels
3.3.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels
3.3.3 EPIS as self-declaration
3.3.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information
3.4 Elaboration phase
3.4.1 Mandatory labels
3.4.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels
3.4.3 EPIS as self-declaration
3.4.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information
3.5 Market phase
3.5.1 Mandatory labels
3.5.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels
3.5.3 EPIS as self-declaration
3.5.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information
3.6 Monitoring and assessment phase
3.6.1 Monitoring 56
3.6.2 Assessment 56

4 Eco-labels and consumers

4.1 Introduction
4.2 The data collection
4.3 Perception of environmental issues
4.4 Who do consumers trust as sources of environmental information?
4.5 Consumer search for environmental information on tissue paper, washing machines and holiday accommodation
4.5.1 Search activity in the four countries
4.5.2 How many commodities do consumers search for?
4.5.3 Why not search for environmental information?
4.5.4 Who searches in the four countries?
4.5.5 Cross-country comparison of searchers
4.6 How to present environmental information
4.6.1 Knowledge of eco-labels in the four countries
4.6.2 Preferred information channels and tools
4.7 Discussion and conclusions

5 Case studies

5.1 Introduction
5.2 Case study: “washing machines”
5.2.1 Background
5.2.1.1 Market structure and trends
5.2.1.2 Environmental features
5.2.2 IPP and Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS) for washing machines
5.2.2.1 Applied EPIS
5.2.2.2 EPIS and other IPP tools
5.2.3 EPIS Process
5.2.3.1 Establishment phase
5.2.3.2 Market phase
5.2.3.3 Key influencing factors
5.2.4 Conclusions
5.2.4.1 EPIS and environmental policy
5.2.4.2 EPIS and market
5.2.4.3 EPIS and company characteristics
5.2.4.4 EPIS and technological development/product
5.2.5 Recommendations for washing machines
5.3 Case study: “tissue paper and copying paper”
5.3.1 Background
5.3.1.1 Market structure and trends
5.3.1.2 Environmental features
5.3.2 IPP and Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS) for paper products
5.3.2.1 Applied EPIS
5.3.2.2 EPIS and other IPP tools
5.3.3 EPIS Process
5.3.3.1 Establishment phase
5.3.3.2 Market phase
5.3.3.3 Key influencing factors
5.3.4 Conclusions
5.3.4.1 EPIS and environmental policy
5.3.4.2 EPIS and market
5.3.4.3 EPIS and company characteristics
5.3.4.4 EPIS and technological development/product
5.3.5 Recommendations for tissue and copying paper products
5.4 Case study: “tourist accommodation”
5.4.1 Background
5.4.1.1 Market structure and trends
5.4.1.2 Environmental Features
5.4.2 IPP and Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS) for tourist accommodation
5.4.2.1 Applied EPIS
5.4.2.2 EPIS and other IPP tools
5.4.3 EPIS process
5.4.3.1 Establishment phase
5.4.3.2 Market phase
5.4.3.3 Key influencing factors
5.4.4 Conclusions
5.4.4.1 EPIS and environmental policy
5.4.4.2 EPIS and market
5.4.4.3 EPIS and company characteristics
5.4.4.4 EPIS and technological development/product
5.4.5 Recommendations for tourist accommodation

6 Conclusions

6.1 Introduction
6.2 The diffusion of EPIS: impact chains and success criteria
6.3 Research methods and results achieved
6.4 Facts and figures
6.4.1 General results
6.4.2 Case-study-specific results
6.5 Key influencing factors
6.5.1 Main environmental impacts along the life-cycle of products and services
6.5.2 Role of stakeholders
6.5.3 Awareness of consumers
6.5.4 Market structure
6.5.5 Format
6.5.6 Criteria
6.5.7 Quality and price
6.5.8 Costs/fees/verification
6.5.9 Credibility
6.5.10 Diffusion and information channels and activities
6.5.11 Integrated approach
6.6 Product group classification
6.6.1 Motivation for a new product group category classification
6.6.2 Key influencing factors for new product group categories
6.6.2.1 Non-recoverable consumable goods
6.6.2.2 Recoverable consumable goods
6.6.2.3 Durable products with their main impacts in the use phase
6.6.2.4 Energy-passive durable products
6.6.2.5 Simple services
6.6.2.6 Complex services
6.6.3 Implications for EPIS
6.7 Towards an integrated strategy for EPIS
6.7.1 The need for an integrated approach
6.7.2 The path-dependency model
6.7.2.1 Step 1: Link with environmental objectives
6.7.2.2 Step 2: Identify who causes and/or suffers the environmental impacts
6.7.2.3 Step 3: Identify main stakeholders as change agents
6.7.2.4 Step 4: Identify which tools
6.7.2.5 Step 5: Identify the role of EPIS within the set of IPP tools
6.7.2.6 Step 6: Identify which EPIS
6.7.2.7 Monitoring
6.7.3 Interaction of EPIS
6.7.3.1 The need for different EPIS for different stakeholders
6.7.3.2 Mandatory versus voluntary approaches
6.7.3.3 EPIS within Integrated Product Policy

7 Recommendations

7.1 Introduction
7.2 Need for an integrated approach
7.2.1 Screening and choosing appropriate EPIS: using the path-dependency model
7.2.2 Selected steps in detail: linking EPIS with general environmental objectives
7.2.3 Selected steps in detail: combining EPIS with IPP instruments
7.3 Multi-stakeholder approach
7.3.1 Capacity-building among stakeholders
7.3.2 Multi-stakeholder co-operation in “product panels”
7.4 Product category orientation
7.4.1 Distinguishing six main product categories
7.4.2 Product categorisation and the path-dependency model
7.4.3 Product category orientation for the elaboration of EPIS criteria and format
7.5 Interaction of EPIS
7.5.1 Use of different EPIS for different stakeholders receiving the information
7.5.2 Use of product category orientation to identify synergies of different EPIS
7.5.3 Use of mandatory comparative versus voluntary selective EPIS
7.6 Establishment of EPIS
7.6.1 Institutionalisation of the labelling schemes
7.6.2 Selection of products
7.6.3 Criteria development
7.6.4 Format, design and administration
7.7 Promotion and communication of EPIS
7.8 Monitoring and assessment
7.8.1 Monitoring of the EPIS process
7.8.2 Monitoring of market performance
7.8.3 Assessment of environmental gains
7.8.4 Types of control regimes
7.9 Future challenges: from eco-labels to sustainable labels?
7.10 Product-group-specific recommendations
7.10.1 Non-recoverable consumable products
7.10.2 Recoverable consumable products
7.10.3 Energy-consuming durable goods
7.10.4 Other energy-passive durable goods
7.10.5 Simple services
7.10.6 Complex services

Bibliography
Abbreviations

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The Future of Eco-labelling Making Environmental Product Information Systems Effective Frieder Rubik, Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW), Heidelberg, Germany, and Paolo Frankl, University of Rome, Italy
Brief description Table of contents	Available November 2004 234 x 156 mm \| 256 pp \| Hardback \| ISBN 1 874719 87 X £35.00 US$65.00 for 20% reduction!
ECO-LABELLING is one of the key tools used by policy-makers in many parts of the world to encourage more sustainable production and consumption. By providing environmental information on products and services, eco-labels address both business users and consumers and range from mandatory approaches, such as required product declarations, to voluntary approaches, such as national eco-labels. Eco-labels can play an important role in environmental policy. They reward and promote environmentally superior goods and services and offer information on quality and performance with respect to issues such as health and energy consumption. Eco-labels fit well into a multi-stakeholder policy framework—as promulgated recently by the EU’s Integrated Product Policy (IPP)—since the development of criteria for labels and the acceptance in the market requires the involvement of a wide range of different parties, from government and business, to consumers and environmental organisations. However, many eco-labelling schemes have had troubled histories, and questions have been raised about their effectiveness. So, are eco-labels an effective tool to foster the development, production, sale and use of products and to provide consumers with good information about the environmental impacts of those products? Is eco-labelling useful to business as a marketing tool? What factors contribute to the development of successful schemes? More than ten years after its establishment, can the EU Flower be considered a success? Are national eco-labels such as the German Blue Angel and the Norwegian White Swan more effective? Should eco-labels be harmonised? Are eco-labels achieving their original aim of fostering sustainable production and consumption? For which product groups are ISO type I eco-labels appropriate and inappropriate? Are other labels, such as mandatory, ISO type II and ISO type III labels more effective in some cases? Are eco-labels focusing on the main environmental policy targets or just on ‘low-hanging fruit’? Are eco-labels really linked to other tools of IPP? *The Future of Eco-labelling* provides answers to all of these questions. Based on a major EU research exercise, the book plots a course for policy-makers to address some of the historic problems with eco-labelling, to learn what works and what doesn’t and to move forward with schemes that can make a real difference to sustainable production and consumption. The book analyses the conditions under which eco-labelling schemes—both mandatory and voluntary—are or can become an efficient and effective tool to achieve given objectives; assesses previous experiences with eco-labels in different European countries and the relationship of these schemes with business strategies, IPP and market conditions; defines strategies aimed at linking eco-labels with other IPP measures; explores how eco-labels can be used to encourage sustainable consumption patterns, create green markets, foster innovation and development of green products and services, and implement multi-stakeholder initiatives; and sets out detailed recommendations for the future of eco-labelling. The book will be required reading for policy-makers, businesses involved with eco-labelling schemes and researchers interested in the development of sustainable production and consumption and Integrated Product Policy worldwide. Back to the Top Contents Foreword Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 1.1 Background 1.2 Outline and content of this volume 1.4 Background information on research process 2 Background: theoretical contributions, eco-labels and environmental policy 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Relevant theoretical contributions from social sciences 2.2.1 Ecological modernisation 2.2.2 Attitudes and behaviour 2.2.3 The risk society 2.2.4 The dream society 2.2.5 Ordinary consumption, consumption and everyday life 2.2.6 Concluding remarks: EPIS and the recent trends in social sciences 2.3 Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS): definitions and classification 2.3.1 EPIS: coping with asymmetric information allocation 2.3.2 Towards a classification of EPIS 2.4 Integrated Product Policy (IPP): approach, state and plans 2.4.1 The shift towards products 2.4.2 Integrated Product Policy in general 2.4.3 Integrated Product Policy and the European Union 3 Environmental product information schemes (EPIS): an overview 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Institutionalisation phase 3.2.1 Mandatory labels 3.2.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels 3.2.3 EPIS as self-declaration 3.2.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information 3.3 Selection phase 3.3.1 Mandatory labels 3.3.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels 3.3.3 EPIS as self-declaration 3.3.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information 3.4 Elaboration phase 3.4.1 Mandatory labels 3.4.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels 3.4.3 EPIS as self-declaration 3.4.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information 3.5 Market phase 3.5.1 Mandatory labels 3.5.2 Voluntary ISO type I labels and similar labels 3.5.3 EPIS as self-declaration 3.5.4 EPIS as quantified environmental information 3.6 Monitoring and assessment phase 3.6.1 Monitoring 56 3.6.2 Assessment 56 4 Eco-labels and consumers 4.1 Introduction 4.2 The data collection 4.3 Perception of environmental issues 4.4 Who do consumers trust as sources of environmental information? 4.5 Consumer search for environmental information on tissue paper, washing machines and holiday accommodation 4.5.1 Search activity in the four countries 4.5.2 How many commodities do consumers search for? 4.5.3 Why not search for environmental information? 4.5.4 Who searches in the four countries? 4.5.5 Cross-country comparison of searchers 4.6 How to present environmental information 4.6.1 Knowledge of eco-labels in the four countries 4.6.2 Preferred information channels and tools 4.7 Discussion and conclusions 5 Case studies 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Case study: “washing machines” 5.2.1 Background 5.2.1.1 Market structure and trends 5.2.1.2 Environmental features 5.2.2 IPP and Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS) for washing machines 5.2.2.1 Applied EPIS 5.2.2.2 EPIS and other IPP tools 5.2.3 EPIS Process 5.2.3.1 Establishment phase 5.2.3.2 Market phase 5.2.3.3 Key influencing factors 5.2.4 Conclusions 5.2.4.1 EPIS and environmental policy 5.2.4.2 EPIS and market 5.2.4.3 EPIS and company characteristics 5.2.4.4 EPIS and technological development/product 5.2.5 Recommendations for washing machines 5.3 Case study: “tissue paper and copying paper” 5.3.1 Background 5.3.1.1 Market structure and trends 5.3.1.2 Environmental features 5.3.2 IPP and Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS) for paper products 5.3.2.1 Applied EPIS 5.3.2.2 EPIS and other IPP tools 5.3.3 EPIS Process 5.3.3.1 Establishment phase 5.3.3.2 Market phase 5.3.3.3 Key influencing factors 5.3.4 Conclusions 5.3.4.1 EPIS and environmental policy 5.3.4.2 EPIS and market 5.3.4.3 EPIS and company characteristics 5.3.4.4 EPIS and technological development/product 5.3.5 Recommendations for tissue and copying paper products 5.4 Case study: “tourist accommodation” 5.4.1 Background 5.4.1.1 Market structure and trends 5.4.1.2 Environmental Features 5.4.2 IPP and Environmental Product Information Schemes (EPIS) for tourist accommodation 5.4.2.1 Applied EPIS 5.4.2.2 EPIS and other IPP tools 5.4.3 EPIS process 5.4.3.1 Establishment phase 5.4.3.2 Market phase 5.4.3.3 Key influencing factors 5.4.4 Conclusions 5.4.4.1 EPIS and environmental policy 5.4.4.2 EPIS and market 5.4.4.3 EPIS and company characteristics 5.4.4.4 EPIS and technological development/product 5.4.5 Recommendations for tourist accommodation 6 Conclusions 6.1 Introduction 6.2 The diffusion of EPIS: impact chains and success criteria 6.3 Research methods and results achieved 6.4 Facts and figures 6.4.1 General results 6.4.2 Case-study-specific results 6.5 Key influencing factors 6.5.1 Main environmental impacts along the life-cycle of products and services 6.5.2 Role of stakeholders 6.5.3 Awareness of consumers 6.5.4 Market structure 6.5.5 Format 6.5.6 Criteria 6.5.7 Quality and price 6.5.8 Costs/fees/verification 6.5.9 Credibility 6.5.10 Diffusion and information channels and activities 6.5.11 Integrated approach 6.6 Product group classification 6.6.1 Motivation for a new product group category classification 6.6.2 Key influencing factors for new product group categories 6.6.2.1 Non-recoverable consumable goods 6.6.2.2 Recoverable consumable goods 6.6.2.3 Durable products with their main impacts in the use phase 6.6.2.4 Energy-passive durable products 6.6.2.5 Simple services 6.6.2.6 Complex services 6.6.3 Implications for EPIS 6.7 Towards an integrated strategy for EPIS 6.7.1 The need for an integrated approach 6.7.2 The path-dependency model 6.7.2.1 Step 1: Link with environmental objectives 6.7.2.2 Step 2: Identify who causes and/or suffers the environmental impacts 6.7.2.3 Step 3: Identify main stakeholders as change agents 6.7.2.4 Step 4: Identify which tools 6.7.2.5 Step 5: Identify the role of EPIS within the set of IPP tools 6.7.2.6 Step 6: Identify which EPIS 6.7.2.7 Monitoring 6.7.3 Interaction of EPIS 6.7.3.1 The need for different EPIS for different stakeholders 6.7.3.2 Mandatory versus voluntary approaches 6.7.3.3 EPIS within Integrated Product Policy 7 Recommendations 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Need for an integrated approach 7.2.1 Screening and choosing appropriate EPIS: using the path-dependency model 7.2.2 Selected steps in detail: linking EPIS with general environmental objectives 7.2.3 Selected steps in detail: combining EPIS with IPP instruments 7.3 Multi-stakeholder approach 7.3.1 Capacity-building among stakeholders 7.3.2 Multi-stakeholder co-operation in “product panels” 7.4 Product category orientation 7.4.1 Distinguishing six main product categories 7.4.2 Product categorisation and the path-dependency model 7.4.3 Product category orientation for the elaboration of EPIS criteria and format 7.5 Interaction of EPIS 7.5.1 Use of different EPIS for different stakeholders receiving the information 7.5.2 Use of product category orientation to identify synergies of different EPIS 7.5.3 Use of mandatory comparative versus voluntary selective EPIS 7.6 Establishment of EPIS 7.6.1 Institutionalisation of the labelling schemes 7.6.2 Selection of products 7.6.3 Criteria development 7.6.4 Format, design and administration 7.7 Promotion and communication of EPIS 7.8 Monitoring and assessment 7.8.1 Monitoring of the EPIS process 7.8.2 Monitoring of market performance 7.8.3 Assessment of environmental gains 7.8.4 Types of control regimes 7.9 Future challenges: from eco-labels to sustainable labels? 7.10 Product-group-specific recommendations 7.10.1 Non-recoverable consumable products 7.10.2 Recoverable consumable products 7.10.3 Energy-consuming durable goods 7.10.4 Other energy-passive durable goods 7.10.5 Simple services 7.10.6 Complex services Bibliography Abbreviations
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