Environmental labeling on products: do it methodically

With its simple logo, environmental labeling gives consumers a product's green rating. It's a powerful tool for eco-design and reducing carbon footprints! AFNOR Certification helps you verify it.

Does this jacket weigh more or less than the one on the next shelf in terms of environmental impact? A, B, C, D, E... It will soon be marked on the label! An initiative launched on a voluntary basis following the laws that came out of the Grenelle Environment Forum in 2009 and 2010, environmental labeling is enjoying a renaissance with the February 2020 law on action against waste and for a circular economy. This law launched an 18-month trial period, primarily in the clothing and footwear sector.

With ratings from A to E, based on the Nutriscore model and the energy label used for light bulbs, household appliances, and real estate listings, this labeling system aims to promote more responsible consumption by making it easy to compare products. It is also intended to encourage producers and distributors to stand out from the competition by communicating the environmental performance of their products and promoting their eco-design efforts, for example as part of a circular economy approach. This is on condition that they can prove that their claims are justified, as required by the 2015 Ecological Transition for Green Growth Act (Article 90).

A multi-criteria rating

Precisely, how can this index be calculated, and how can we be sure that it is reliable, given that the score represents an environmental footprint that is actually a sum of footprints (on water, air, climate, etc.)? And this covers the entire life cycle of the product, from the extraction of raw materials to its end-of-life recovery, including its distribution and use. This requires a life cycle assessment (LCA).

The development of criteria and calculation methods required lengthy preparatory work following the Grenelle 1 law (2009), led by ADEME and AFNOR, in partnership with several voluntary sectors (clothing, furniture, hospitality, electrical and electronic products, etc.). Today, standard databases exist and are available to consumer brands. They complement a cross-cutting reference framework (general principles and methodological framework) and sector-specific reference frameworks covering some 30 product categories: food, household goods, hygiene, electronic equipment, sports equipment, etc. However, any company wishing to implement environmental labeling for a category of products or services covered by a reference framework must call on one of the delegates to verify the accuracy of the ratings before displaying them.

Have your calculations verified by AFNOR Certification

On behalf of ADEME, AFNOR Certification is one of these verification service providers, in partnership with the Saint-Etienne Eco-design Cluster. "Drawing on our expertise in third-party assessment and our partner's technical expertise, we help you verify the calculations and methods used, enabling you to present objective and accurate information," summarizes Eric Laurençon, project manager. The service includes:

• verification of the calculation tool (compliance with validated standards, use of generic data from the Impacts® database, relevance of the sample used to determine reference values, compliance of the aggregation methodology);
• verification of the accuracy of specific data used to calculate environmental ratings;
  management of the rights to use the "Environmental Impact"® trademark.