Ecolabeling as a Policy Instrument for More Sustainable Development: The Evidence of Supply and Demand Interactions from Russia

Ecolabeling can complement more conventional policy instruments such as taxes and subsidies to stimulate more sustainable development of the economy. However, in practice, ecolabels may not always comply with legal requirements in terms of reliability, accuracy and clarity, and sometimes deliberately mislead the consumer. In Russia and many other developing countries, the problem of inaccurate information on the environmental properties of goods and services is still not recognized. The only regulatory document that currently defines the basic principles for developing and using environmental labels and declarations is the national versions of international standards ISO 14020/14021/14024/14025-Environmental Labels Package. This paper contributes to the literature in two main dimensions. It assesses the degree of prevalence of ecolabeling in the Russian market of everyday goods and the reliability and informational content of frequently used labels (supply-side research). Second, it estimates the consumers’ awareness and reaction to ecolabeled products (demand-side research). The most obvious finding to emerge from this study is that low consumer awareness keeps the level of greenwashing low, but at the same time does not stimulate eco-innovations. We suggest developing smartphone applications that allow buyers to check the compliance of ecolabels on a product with ISO standards directly during the shopping process. We propose to use this approach as a cost-effective and straightforward way to simultaneously raise consumer awareness of ecolabeling and reduce the likelihood of greenwashing.

Increasing the Sustainability of a Fruits and Vegetables Market in South of Italy Through Combined Solar Power Production and Byproducts Valorization

The future is moving towards an energy system different from the current one: highly efficient, renewable and immediate. For this reason, it is necessary to promote innovative technologies to pursue the development of a green economy connected to the environmental sustainability and the reduction of food waste. This study lays the basis of a different approach on the interaction between solar production and bio enhancement of organic residual flows of a fruit and vegetable market in Southern Italy. The proposed method consists in the installation of a photovoltaic system to cover the energy needs, including the electricity demand for the use of forklifts. This innovation is linked to the sustainable management of residual agri-food waste that, properly treated, allows the production of a soil improver usable in the early stages of the product life cycle. Therefore, the optimization of the entire agri-food chain permits the achievement of the requirements needed to obtain important environmental labels, signs of transparency and safety for the market products. The results emerged from an economic analysis justify the investment for the realization of the system: the optimal exploitation of the renewable source allows an annual profit which drastically reduces the payback periods of the investment.

The Effects of Environmental Sustainability Labels on Selection, Purchase, and Consumption of Food and Drink Products: A Systematic Review

This review assessed the effects of environmental labels on consumers’ demand for more sustainable food products. Six electronic databases were searched for experimental studies of ecolabels and food choices. We followed standard Cochrane methods and results were synthesized using vote counting. Fifty-six studies ( N = 42,768 participants, 76 interventions) were included. Outcomes comprised selection ( n = 14), purchase ( n = 40) and consumption ( n = 2). The ecolabel was presented as text ( n = 36), logo ( n = 13) or combination ( n = 27). Message types included: organic ( n = 25), environmentally sustainable ( n = 27), greenhouse gas emissions ( n = 17), and assorted “other” message types ( n = 7). Ecolabels were tested in actual ( n = 15) and hypothetical ( n = 41) environments. Thirty-nine studies received an unclear or high RoB rating. Sixty comparisons favored the intervention and 16 favored control. Ecolabeling with a variety of messages and formats was associated with the selection and purchase of more sustainable food products.

Sustainable Practices in Furniture Design: A Literature Study on Customization, Biomimicry, Competitiveness, and Product Communication

This research considers the ecosystem services associated with furniture, one of the leading types of secondary wood products manufactured internationally. We review and synthesize the literature surrounding the sustainable design, use, and disposition of wood furniture and related products in global markets. We consider emerging and innovative design strategies for wood (in biomimicry, for example) as well as topics that have been gaining traction in recent years (i.e., green supply chain management and eco/environmental labels and related market communications). An overarching theme is to consider how firm competitiveness can be influenced, or even enhanced, by green practices in design and associated communications with consumers. With a trend toward increasing customization in the secondary wood product marketplace, the role of design might be changing. However, design remains a critical product development function in modern markets, and designers are well-positioned to influence sustainable material utilization and improve furniture product use and lifespan.

Promoting the Absence of Pesticides through Product Labels: The Role of Showing a Specific Description of the Harmful Effects, Environmental Attitude, and Familiarity with Pesticides

Few studies have analyzed the mechanisms of how environmental labels influence consumers’ perception and consequent behavior. The present study puts forth specific questions of how pesticide-free products should be promoted through product labels. Data were collected via controlled experimentation. The results demonstrate that pesticide-free labels with specific information on the harmful effects of pesticides have a more positive impact on perceived value and purchase intention relative to pesticide-free labels with a general description of the harmful effects of pesticides. The results also show that the positive effects of promoting the absence of pesticides through product labels on perceived quality, perceived value, and purchase intention are stronger among individuals who are high in environmental attitude and familiarity with pesticides. Policymakers, producers, and retailers could use these findings for better decision-making.

Circular Fashion – Consumers’ Attitudes in Cross-National Study: Poland and Canada

The limits of the present linear economy model (take-make-waste) are well illustrated by the textile and clothing sector, one of the most indispensable consumer goods industries. Although a huge increase in the number of publications on the circular economy can be observed, the number of papers analyzing consumers’ attitudes and behavior toward circular fashion, especially the ones comparing consumers from different regions, is still limited. The article aimed to assess consumers’ attitudes toward circular fashion and draw a cross country comparison in this respect. The research focused on the three pillars of the latest EU Sustainable Product Policy Framework, i.e., designing sustainable products, empowering consumers, and circularity in production processes. An online survey and convenience sampling were used to collect valid responses from two countries (i.e., Canada and Poland) with different cultures, levels of economic development, and approaches to environmental and social issues. The results showed that significant differences between the countries emerged to a greater extent regarding consumers’ attitudes toward environmental labels for fashion products and sustainable buying behavior. The Polish respondents perceived the need for such labels to a greater extent. The Canadian ones, on the other hand, turned out to be more willing to choose sustainable clothing and reduce consumption. The differences between the countries were much less conspicuous as regards circular cues and circularity in fashion production processes. They appeared only in the case of clothing durability and the impact of production processes on air quality. Those aspects turned out to be more important for Polish respondents.

Consumers’ Preferences and Willingness to Pay for Fish Products with Health and Environmental Labels: Evidence from Five European Countries

Seafood products are important sources of protein and components of a healthy and sustainable diet. Understanding consumers’ preferences for fish products is crucial for increasing fish consumption. This article reports the consumer preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for different fish species and attributes on representative samples in five European countries (n = 2509): France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UK. Consumer choices were investigated for fresh fish in a retail market under hypothetical situations arranged by a labelled choice experiment conducted for seven fish species: Cod, herring, seabass, seabream, salmon, trout, and pangasius. The results show the highest premiums for wild-caught fish than farm-raised alternatives. Ready-to-cook products are generally preferred to whole fish, whereas fish fillet preference is more species-specific. The results show positive premiums for a sustainability label and nutrition and health claims, with high heterogeneity across countries and species. With consumers’ preferences and WTP being largely country- and fish-dependent, businesses (fish companies, retailers, and others) should consider the specific market context and adapt their labelling strategies accordingly. Public authorities campaigns should inform consumers about the tangible benefits related with health and environmental labels.

A Bibliometric Analysis of Carbon Labeling Schemes in the Period 2007–2019

Carbon labeling schemes enable consumers to be aware of carbon emissions regarding products or services, to help change their purchasing behaviors. This study provides a bibliometric analysis to review the research progress of carbon labeling schemes during the period 2007–2019, in order to provide insight into its future development. Number of publications, countries of publications, authors, institutions, and highly cited papers are included for statistical analysis. The CiteSpace software package is used to visualize the national collaboration, keywords co-appearance, and aggregation. The results are given as follows: (1) there are 175 articles published in the pre-defined period, which shows a gradual increase, with a peak occurred in 2016; (2) carbon labeling schemes are mainly applied to grocery products, and gradually emerged in construction and tourism. (3) Existing studies mainly focus on examination of utility of carbon labeling schemes, by conducting surveys to investigate individual perception, preference, and willingness to pay. (4) Future research will include the optimization of life cycle assessment for labeling accreditation, improvement of labeling visualization for better expression, and normalization of various environmental labels to promote sustainable consumption.

ANÁLISE DE EFICIÊNCIA ENERGÉTICA EM INSTITUIÇÕES DE ENSINO SUPERIOR MULTICAMPI E UMA NOVA PROPOSTA DE ROTULAGEM AMBIENTAL

The expansion of Brazilian higher education institutions (HEIs) organized in multicampi structures brought a significant complexity to the academic and administrative management. In this context, environmental management strategies become quite relevant, especially when considering the low effectiveness of the Brazilian Labeling Program (BLP) for the classification of buildings in practice. The main objective of the present paper is to evaluate the BLP efficacy as applied to HEI buildings, aiming to develop a new environmental labeling model for multicampi HEIs. For this purpose, the BLP was applied to the labeling of Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Piauí (IFPI), employing data obtained from electricity bills between 2016 and 2018. The energy diagnosis was performed considering distinct indicators,performance indexes, levels and rankings of relative energy efficiency, from which energy efficiency labels could be developed. The results allow the verification of the low efficiency of the BLP, especially in the environmental labeling of HEIs. From the detailed analysis of bills, it is possible to develop environmental labels inspired by the BLP, resulting in a different approach. A novel type-II environmental labeling methodology is then introduced based on the breakdown of electricity bills and statistical methods.

A Proposed Framework on the Affective Design of Eco-Product Labels

There was a shift in sustainability consumption in the last decade that stimulated new strategies for ecological friendly industries and new product innovations. Environmental labeling is a marketing technique used to inform consumers that a company has employed a process to protect the environment. However, uncertainty remains concerning how eco-labels influence consumers. Buying green products can elicit emotion in consumers. When consumers buy eco-products, they feel that they are helping save the environment. Products provide certain emotional benefits and therefore affect mood and behavior. This study aims to examine how consumers who differ in environmental attitudes respond to eco-labels. Aside from this, it wants to determine the intensity and type of emotions elicited by these kinds of products based on a certain set of pre-purchase emotions. These emotions are still unknown. Also, it proposes the Green Emotion Model (GEM) 2.0 that correlates environmental attitudes, visual attention towards these eco-labels, emotion and the desirability of purchasing a product. This framework proposes that the environmental attitudes and awareness of consumers are crucial for them to look for this eco-label on a product. These environmental labels should be able to capture the attention of consumers and thus will provoke positive emotions and lead to the purchase of an eco-product.