Green Label Guide

The European Union’s Ecolabel is a voluntary scheme, established in 1992, that provides participants with an international environmental label. It is one of the most widely recognised labels in Europe and spans across a variety of product and service sectors.

What does the label certify?

The Ecolabel is awarded to products and services and carries the flower logo. Product groups include, cleaning products, appliances, paper products, textile, home and garden products, and services such as tourist accommodation.

Products that carry the Ecolabel have been independently assessed and show that they are less damaging to the environment than some equivalent brands over their whole life cycle, from manufacture to disposal. Products and services that bear this label must meet a set of published environmental criteria agreed upon by EU member states after consultation with relevant interested parties.

Who certifies the label?

The scheme is administered by officially designated Competent Bodies in each EU country. In the UK, the Competent Body is the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), who contract a consortium called UK Ecolabel Delivery Team to carry out administration, criteria revision and assessment of applications on their behalf.

The EU Ecolabelling Board (EUEB) is responsible for developing, publishing and promoting criteria for product groups. The EUEB is made up of the Competent Bodies from each Member State and the interested parties that form the Consultation Forum. The European Commission manages the scheme at the EU level to ensure correct implementation of the Ecolabel Regulation.

What publicity opportunities does the Ecolabel offer?

You can use the Flower symbol in your advertising as well as on your products, though you should also provide an explanation of what the award means.

Who can apply for the label?

Every European or non-European company producing or selling products that enter in one of the product groups covered by the EU Ecolabel scheme is eligible to apply for the scheme as well as every campsite or tourist accommodation.

Since the EU Ecolabel was established, the number of companies receiving the label has increased each year. At the beginning of 2010, more than 1000 EU Ecolabel licences were awarded in 12 established product groups. The UK currently has 31 Ecolabel holders.

Click here for more information on the application process. 

Carbon Reduction Label

The Carbon Reduction Label is a public commitment that the carbon footprint of a product or service has been measured and certified and the owner of the product or service has committed to reduce that footprint over the following two years. 

The Carbon Label Company was set up by the Carbon Trust in 2007 to help meet the needs of both businesses and their customers. In 2009, the Company became the Carbon Trust Footprinting Company to reflect the breadth of services it now provides.

When working with businesses, the Carbon Trust Footprinting Company applies its own set of proprietary data to the BSI British Standards’ PAS 2050 and the Code of Good Practice to ensure standardisation of measurements within product and service categories. It is this process that allows customers to easily compare the greenhouse gas footprints of different products, whatever their origins, since all products are judged on a full life cycle assessment.

Click here to learn more information on this scheme.

CarbonNeutral

CarbonNeutral is the registered trademark of The CarbonNeutral Company and is a global standard to certify that businesses have measured and reduced their CO2 emissions to net zero for their company, products, operations or services.

Permission to display the CarbonNeutral mark is only given to clients whose carbon reduction programme is implemented in accordance with the CarbonNeutral Protocol, which enables the CarbonNeutral Company to act as a third party verifier.

The Protocol assures quality of offset projects, carbon footprint assessments and communication and is regularly reviewed by an Independent Advisory Group. 

Learn more about the mark here.

Energy Saving Trust Recommended

Energy Saving Trust Recommended is a best-in-class product certification and labelling scheme that covers 32 product categories on the UK market. Manufacturers, suppliers and retailers can join the scheme to help their customers identify the most energy efficient products in their ranges. The Energy Saving Trust, which manages the certification, is an independent, non-profit organisation backed by the Government.

Product categories range across seven sectors: 

• Appliances

• Consumer electronics

• IT

• Lighting

• Heating

• Insulation

• Glazing. 

All certification criteria go through a planning, consultation and peer-reviewing process before they are implemented. This means that to be Energy Saving Trust Recommended products must be top in their class at energy efficiency.

Annual member fees are £275 and there is another fee association with product registration. The Energy Saving Trust Recommended endorsement scheme aims to endorse only the top 20 per cent of the most energy efficient products in each category so that certification shows an extraordinary level of commitment to energy efficiency. 

For more information visit the Energy Saving Trust website.

Energy Star

The European Energy Star Programme is a voluntary energy-labelling programme for office equipment. The Energy Star Mark is designed to show customers that a product bearing its label delivers the same or better performance as comparable models, while using less energy and saving money. 

The label is a well-known indicator of low energy consumption in both the US and Europe, and the label is now on more than 40 product categories and thousands of models for the home and office. The logo appears on office equipment, such as computers, monitors, printers and fax machines.

The Energy Star Programme is a voluntary partnership of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). An agreement, signed in 2000, partners the European Union in the labelling scheme, placing the European Commission in charge of the programme. 

To find information about joining the scheme click here. 

Marine Stewardship Council Ecolabel

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Ecolabel is a mark of sustainable seafood and can be used by restaurants. Fisheries can also get a MSC certification so restaurants in the ecolabel scheme can use them.

Seafood that bears the ecolabel comes from a certified sustainable wild-catch fishery and ensures that the fishery has been independently certified as meeting the rigorous MSC environmental standard for sustainable fishing. MSC-labelled seafood can also be traced right back to the MSC certified sustainable fishery where it was caught.

Whenever seafood is sold with the MSC ecolabel, every business in the supply chain must meet the MSC standard for seafood traceability and have a current 'MSC Chain of Custody' certificate to prove this.

In order for restaurants to get the MSC Ecolabel on their menus they must source MSC-certified sustainable seafood, get certified by an independent auditor, and apply for a MSC Ecolabel license. 

Click here to find out more on how to get MSC certified.

Soil Association Certification

Soil Association Certification Ltd is the UK’s largest organic certification body, responsible for certifying over 80 per cent of all organic products sold in the country. It has been operating since 1973 and awards organic certification to farms and businesses that meet its organic standards. Farmers, growers, food processors, feed mills, retailers, cafes, storage facilities, and transport can apply for certification.

The association’s standards exceed the EU organic regulations minimum requirements in several areas, especially in relation to animal welfare, GM and the use of pesticides. The standards cover everything from barley to beef, chocolate to coffee and state what is allowed and not allowed in the production of organic food. 

Certification is a three step process involving application, inspection, and certification. After certification, businesses will have a dedicated Certification officer who looks after all aspects of the licence after the inspection, such as adding new products or land.

Find out more information about the certification here.

Blue Angel Eco-label

The Blue Angel (Blauer Engel) is a German certification for products and services that have environmentally friendly aspects. The first and one of the most well known eco-labels worldwide, Blue Angel promotes the concerns of both environmental protection and consumer protection.

The label specifies that the product or service focus on one of four different protection goals: 

• Health

• Climate

• Water

• Resources. 

Manufacturers of Blue Angel products must reclaim the product at the end of its useful life. Blue Angel criteria include: efficient use of fossil fuels, alternative products with less of an impact on the climate, reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and conservation of resources.

Approximately 10,000 products and services in 80 product categories carry the Blue Angel eco-label. 

Click here for more information on Blue Angel certification:

Forest Stewardship Council Certification

The Forest Steward Council (FSC) runs a global forest certification system with two key components: Forest Management and Chain of Custody certification. This system allows consumers to identify and use timber and forest products produced from well-managed forests.

With its 10 Principles and 56 associated Criteria, FSC offers a set of requirements for responsible forest management. The aim is to ensure that forest resources are managed to meet the social, economic and ecological needs of present and future generations. FSC does not issue certificates itself, but entrusts the certification to independent bodies. These certification bodies assess forest management and chain of custody operations against FSC standards. Certification is valid for five years.

Though mainly designed for forest management for timber products, they are also largely relevant for non-timber products and other environmental services such as clean water and air and carbon sequestration. FSC is also the only wood certification scheme endorsed by environmental charities, WWF, Greenpeace and The Woodland Trust.

More information about FSC can be found here.