The ecolabel and sustainable development |
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Authors: | Email author" target="_blank">Sophie?LavalléeEmail author Sylvain?Plouffe |
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Institution: | (1) Faculty of Law, Laval University, Charles De-Koninck, G1K 7P4 Québec, Canada;(2) School of Industrial Design, University of Montreal, Stn Centre-Ville, P.O. Box 6128, H3C 3J7 Montreal, Canada |
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Abstract: | Abstract The goal of the different national and supranational ecolabelling programs is to encourage consumers to choose products which
are the least damaging to the environment. It is clear that the involvement of product and service users is essential to the
establishment of sustainable consumption patterns. For this reason, ecolabelling must necessarily limit any risks of uncertainty.
To this end, labels must take into account all the impacts of a product’s life cycle and use a reliable and verifiable evaluation
method.
In general, the organizations in charge of ecolabelling programs claim that a multi-criteria approach is used to define the
exact labelling criteria appropriate for the product categories in question. These organizations generally maintain that their
approach is based on the completion of exhaustive and complete life cycle analyses, which take into account all of the impacts
caused by a product throughout its life cycle. And yet, the real situation is often far less clear-cut, and these simplified
approaches, which tend to reconcile economic realism and methodological coherence, constitute the usual procedure for criteria
definition.
Thus, the procedures involved in criteria development often rely on a ‘semi-qualitative’ approach to the life cycle which
uses both qualitative and quantitative data in order to identify the product’s significant stages on the environment.
Presently, the ecolabel is a ‘non-verifiable expert property’ for the consumer. The ecolabel’s lack of objectivity in its
criteria and its lack of transparency, resulting from non standardized methods whose accuracy cannot be measured, can only
damage this sustainable development tool’s credibility. In effect, the primary hindrance to ecolabel development lies precisely
within this difficulty of finding a compromise between economic feasibility and the scientific and methodological rigor which
are indispensable to the label’s credibility and veracity. |
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Keywords: | Ecolabel environmental declarations environmental labels |
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