{"id":5101,"date":"2019-09-05T10:19:32","date_gmt":"2019-09-05T07:19:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/africasustainabilitymatters.com\/?p=5101"},"modified":"2026-01-11T05:30:31","modified_gmt":"2026-01-11T05:30:31","slug":"eco-labeling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/2019\/09\/05\/eco-labeling\/","title":{"rendered":"Eco-Labeling- The Complexity Behind Simplicity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is\nit really relevant to have eco-labels on potato chips? Maybe not!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will we ever see the day when all\nproducts carry environmental labels with data on carbon emissions and other\nimpacts? Recent news tells us a definitive\u2026maybe. The attempt to give corporate\nbuyers and end consumers more sustainability data about the products they are\npurchasing has had a somewhat tortured history. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tesco<\/a> has been a leader in sharing carbon\nfootprint information with consumers having reviewed and labeled over 500\nproducts. The company’s efforts came on the heels of Pepsi\u2019s<\/a> first foray into labeling with its\nwalker’s potato chips brand. Since then, however, it has been tirelessly\nworking towards how to make data labeling work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is\ncarbon footprint the most useful data for customers to have?<\/strong> Or<\/strong> total energy used during\nthe product lifetime?<\/strong> The best thing to share will heavily depend on the\nproduct- the labels on energy hogs, like light bulbs, air conditioners, and\ncars, should tell us the total energy use and cost to operate over a year or\nthe product’s lifetime. For milk or snacks, the energy used to take it to\nshelves makes sense but again, it may not be helpful for consumers. So, even\nwithout the specific grounds of carbon, a combination of qualitative and\nquantitative information could still make sense. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

How\ncan you summarize the sustainability of a product on a label?<\/strong> This is perhaps the toughest\nquestion and literally, hundreds of varying eco-labels out there attest to the\nchallenge of trying. In some cases, like a car, maybe the concept of \u201csustainability\u201d\nis fairly straightforward given how much of the impact comes in the “use\nphase” of the product- if you are getting 50 percent better fuel\nefficiency you know you are reducing the impact a great deal. But how\nsustainable are 80 grams of carbon for a bag of chips? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knowing the exact grounds of carbon\nper product is a process that takes long- on average months. It is an\ninteresting time to reach that conclusion but the hustle involved is quite\nintense. Companies need to seek a level of sophistication with better data and\ncarbon allocation methods. It is in the business to a business world that\ndemands more information on every product. From the sustainability\nconsortium<\/a> for retail\nand consumer product- to the sustainable apparel\ncoalition<\/a> for outdoor\ngear and clothing industry, groups are coming together to gather data and set\nstandards for measuring footprints.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am confident that companies such\nas EcoMark Africa<\/a> and other major retailers will\ncontinue to ask suppliers for carbon data and other sustainability data while\npicking products for their shelves and setting up special promotions. The\ngreening of the supply chain<\/a> is the most dependable of trends in\nthe sustainability sphere because there are so many clear benefits for\ncompanies when they know their value chain footprints: from cost savings to\nrisk reduction to better brand storytelling. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is it really relevant to have eco-labels on potato chips? Maybe not! Will we ever see the day when all products carry environmental labels with data on carbon emissions and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5102,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[89],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economic-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}