The rise of carbon footprint labels

Many of our everyday products nowaday are ‘eco labeled’. Even though brands still run into controversy and criticism due to their attempts at ‘objective’ eco labeling, the outcry only goes to show the demand among consumers for a real objective way to recognize green products and turn their convictions into action. 

Now that the technology is getting accurate enough to pinpoint the ecological impact of businesses, it is also getting accurate enough so that we can see eco labels implemented in banks, credit cards, supermarkets (or here), mobile plans, and many other products and services. The first signs are pretty positive, with a study claiming that carbon footprint labels cause people to choose meat products with 25% lower climate impact. 

This makes sense: most people want to make sustainable choices, but in reality they often don’t. Making sustainable choices comes with effort. Effort to educate yourself on better choices, to research what is the greener choice, and where to buy it. And even if the effort is small, people often opt for their comfortable choices, whether it’s due to a lack of time or headspace. But that’s why eco labels might make an actual difference in the future–it outsources all the effort and presents people with a clear, comparable metric to measure their daily consumption by. How can you simplify better choices for your customers?

Image credit: https://www.adidas.com/us/sustainability