What is the effect of carbon labelling?

What is a carbon label?

A carbon label is a number on a product or service that tells you how much CO2e is and will be associated with that item (in its production, use and end of life). It looks a bit like the nutrition rating labels we’ve become accustomed to seeing on food packaging to indicate the amount of calories, salt, fat etc. Here’s a link to some examples of products with carbon labels.

Necklace by Alex Monroe with a carbon label

How do you calculate the amount of carbon?

This is something we could talk about all day long but don’t worry, we’ll keep it brief. Calculating the carbon footprint of a product or service means counting the carbon at every stage of that product’s lifecycle or all of the ‘ingredients’ that go into a service or package. 

In the case of a soft drink for example, we would consider the carbon footprint of producing the ingredients, manufacturing the product, the packaging, distribution, refrigeration and disposal.

In the case of a holiday to the Maldives, a carbon label would include the emissions linked to the flights, airport transfers, accommodation, activities and meals.

The Maldives (more aesthetically pleasing than a photo of a soft drink)

Does carbon labelling help reduce carbon emissions?

According to a report by the Carbon Trust, 67% of people support the idea of a recognisable carbon label to demonstrate products with a commitment to measuring and reducing their carbon footprint. On that basis, it would seem like a good idea.

A study conducted by psychologists at Wurzburg University in Germany found that putting carbon labels on restaurant menus resulted in people choosing options that had a 13.5% lower carbon footprint. That seems pretty good too, right?

And the effect isn’t just limited to customers. Explore!, who we work with, have carbon labelled their adventure tours. Internally they are creating competition between their product managers (the people who put the adventure packages together) to see who can reduce the carbon footprint of their tours the most (without compromising the customer experience of course). That means looking for lower carbon forms of transport, accommodation providers with a lower carbon footprint and introducing more plant-based meals too.

Explore! adventure tour with carbon label

The limitations of carbon labelling

When it comes to sustainability, carbon is only one piece of the puzzle. 

Take the example of eggs. Eggs from hens kept in cages have the lowest carbon footprint, but clearly, from an animal welfare and health perspective, it’s not a desirable outcome to encourage battery chicken farming.

In another example, it makes sense to encourage people to choose a plant-based meal on a restaurant menu, but what if your customers tend to drive 30 miles to your restaurant in a diesel powered 4x4?

And how can a company realistically factor in the end of life of a product? It’s very hard to say how long someone is going to own a piece of clothing, how many times they will wear it, whether they will repair it and what they will do with it once they have finished with it. 

These examples are not designed to depress you and put you off carbon labelling but are to add balance and show that carbon accounting is not a perfect science. That said, we shouldn’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. As you have already read, there are benefits to be had.

If you’d like more information, the BBC’s The Bottom Line radio programme has an interesting podcast about carbon labelling.

So what should you do?

Carbon labelling has been shown to have some positive effect and our feeling is that this will only increase as calculations become more accurate and people get used to them. So if you are measuring your company’s carbon footprint with a view to reducing your carbon emissions, carbon labelling is definitely a tactic to consider including in your strategy. Helping customers buy better, will definitely help move your business towards net-zero.

But most importantly, we must not lose sight of the goal which is to reduce carbon emissions across your products and services. So we would advocate that you focus on your business first and foremost, measure and reduce your carbon footprint and then consider labelling to engage your customers and team around your goals.

On a personal level, we can all make a difference by asking the companies we buy from to share with us the carbon footprint of the items or services they are selling. This one simple question has been proven to have a huge butterfly effect within organisations, particularly those full of intent but who are yet to take action. 

How can ecollective help?

We calculate the carbon footprints of companies in our sleep. Well, that’s to say, it’s our bread and butter. We calculate in various ways, from working out the total carbon footprint of your business to the carbon footprint of every product you sell. This is all done in a way with the future in mind, so your team can innovate and create or tweak products you sell to have a smaller and smaller impact on the environment year on year.