Consumers support product carbon labeling as climate change concerns heat up

27 Apr 2020 --- An international survey has found that two-thirds of consumers support carbon labeling on products. The 2020 YouGov survey – commissioned by the Carbon Trust – also identified that of the 10,000 respondents across France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, the UK and the US, two-thirds are more likely to think positively about a brand that could demonstrate it had lowered the carbon footprint of its products. The Carbon Trust expects to see continued growth in the demand for product carbon footprint labeling and with it companies increasingly refining their approach to packaging information.

FMCG brands are increasingly finding a competitive advantage in more prominent on-pack communication of their packaging’s environmental sustainability credentials, according to Innova Market Insights. The market researcher identified “The Language of Environmental Sustainability” as its top packaging trend for 2020.

“We are pleased to see a growing number of brands consider how they communicate with their customers on carbon impacts and climate change. The Carbon Trust Product Carbon Footprint Label is one way in which they can demonstrate a commitment to measuring and reducing their product’s carbon footprint. We are also seeing brands providing supporting carbon footprint information on their websites and in other customer-facing communications,” Hugh Jones, Managing Director at the Carbon Trust tells PackagingInsights.

“The sustained and high levels of consumer support for carbon labeling suggests that passing this information on to increasingly well-informed and climate-conscious consumers can also enhance a company’s reputation and market share.”

The Carbon Trust launched one of the world’s first carbon footprint certification schemes and Product Carbon Footprint Label in 2007. That year it also began work with the British Standards Institute and the UK government’s Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to develop the Publicly Available Specification for product carbon footprinting (BSI PAS 2050), launched in 2008.

This month, Danone mineral water brand evian achieved carbon neutral certification from the Carbon Trust in all the countries where the brand operates. evian achieved carbon neutrality through a range of measures, including lightweighting its bottles and continuously increasing the proportion of recycled PET, up to 100 percent in the case of UK evian bottles from April 2020. Danone currently displays the Carbon Trust’s footprint label on bottles of evian sold across the US and Canada to demonstrate its carbon neutral status to customers.

The Carbon Trust is currently working with major brands on product footprint labeling projects that will see the Carbon Trust Product Carbon footprint label appear on many thousands of SKUs globally.

“We expect to see continued growth in demand for product carbon footprint labeling to meet customer demand. With this growth, it is likely that companies will increasingly refine their approach to packaging information in response to consumer research, just as packaging companies themselves are focusing on reducing their impacts. We partner with companies to ensure they have the independent and robust data required to achieve this,” Jones explains.

Cue carbon labeling
France, Italy and Spain are the countries with the highest levels of support for the use of recognizable labels on products where their carbon footprint has been measured, according to the YouGov survey. Moreover, companies are making reduction efforts with 80, 82 and 79 percent of consumers respectively saying it’s a good idea. In Spain, 56 percent of consumers “strongly agreed” that carbon labeling for products is a good idea.

Sweden has seen the highest increase in support for labeling compared to previous years, though interest in labeling remains “relatively modest” when compared to France, Italy and Spain.

Conducted for the second year in the majority of markets, and its third in the UK, the YouGov survey results showed the same level of support (67 percent) across all geographies compared to the 2019 data.

“This research aligns with the growth in corporate demand for product carbon footprinting and labeling that we have witnessed over the past year. We know that companies have much to gain by quantifying the carbon footprints of their products and services, a process that gives insight into where they can create efficiencies,” Jones continues.

Business considers cost of carbon
The Carbon Trust has witnessed “mounting public and corporate interest” in product carbon footprinting and labeling. Jones pinpoints the Paris Agreement and the formation of the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi) in 2015 as key reasons why carbon footprint is now a significant issue for all leading businesses.

Further, he highlights the growing number of national targets for net zero emissions and increasing corporate ambition around “net zero.” For example, in advance of the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change, Danone committed to carbon neutrality across its full value chain by 2050. Taking its first steps towards meeting this goal, the business used its flagship natural water brand, evian, to prove is possible.

Jones also singles out “the call for an increasing level of climate risk analysis at board level, which is raising the importance of carbon in terms of both corporate strategy and investment finance allocation.”

Dutch government officials recently revealed measures to spend €3 billion on climate change initiatives, including scaling back on coal-fired power stations. The decision came after Green non-profit Urgenda won a landmark supreme court ruling which determined that climate change poses a serious threat to human rights.

“Without a doubt, this [ruling] should encourage climate lawsuits in other countries. It’s a shining example,” notes Tom van der Lee, Dutch Green Party politician.

Cutting carbon was the key theme of Packaging Innovations 2020 in Birmingham, UK. This ambition manifested itself in a wealth of plastic and plastic-free innovation at the show, with suppliers keen to demonstrate how their solutions could reduce carbon footprint without compensating for pack shelf-appeal, convenience and functionality.

By Joshua Poole