Tuesday 17 February 2009

Are carbon labels useful?

Last week I was in Singapore at a seminar organized for trade ministries from Asian countries. The programme included presentations on trade and environment issues.

Prior to my presentation on carbon labelling, I asked the 25 participants:

- if they knew what the carbon label on the Sapporo beer above meant,
- if they were more likely to buy the product because of the label and
- if they thought the label would help stop climate change. The results lead me to question the point of carbon labelling.
Just for good measure I asked if people knew what their countries average personal carbon footprint was.

Findings
Half the respondants were correct in knowing what the label meant. Half were incorrect.

Both those who were correct and those who were incorrect in knowing what the label meant felt that they would be more likely to buy this product than an equally priced and quality beer due to the label.

Most respondants felt that the label would help slow down climate change.

Noone knew how much CO2 was emitted per capita in their respective countries.

My observations are the following:

- There is limited understanding amongst consumers as to what carbon labels mean.
- Irrespective of whether a consumer understands its meaning or not, the label increases the product's marketability.
- Despite thinking that carbon labels will slow down climate change, consumers do not know what their carbon footprints are. How are they in a position to begin calculating what is the best strategy for reducing their footprint?

1 comment:

Gunnar Rundgren said...

I think that carbon labelling is a dead end, and also potentially dangerous. Even if greenhouse gases is a seriuous threat, a product's carbon footprint can't be the main parameter to consider when purchasing. There are so many other aspects to consider. In any case people can stick to potatoes and wheat and just avoid animal products and processed food instead of differentiate between two beers with marginally different carbon footprints.