Today, citizens and businesses in over 50 countries are celebrating World Ecolabel Day, an initiative endorsed by the Global Ecolabel Network (GEN) dedicated to honouring goods and services with excellent environmental performance.
This special day is not just about celebrating trusted ecolabels in different countries, but a reminder that consumers and market actors who choose and promote ecolabel goods and services play an essential role in the transition to a green, clean and circular economy.
The EU Ecolabel – the official voluntary ecolabel of the European Union, a member of the GEN – is flourishing in numbers with almost 90.000 goods and services in 25 different product groups available on the EU market. On World Ecolabel Day, the iconic EU Ecolabel flower is front and centre on a number of goods and services – of which the list just keeps growing. Take tourist accommodation, the leading product group for awarded licences: in the last 6 months, 76 new EU Ecolabel licences were awarded (a 15% increase), raising the total number of EU Ecolabel tourist accommodations to 620 ! Looking at other product categories: you can find the EU Ecolabel on more than 35.000 paints and varnishes, 20.000 paper products, nearly 12.000 detergents, more than 9.000 textiles, over 2.000 furniture products, 750 cosmetic products, and 200 indoor cleaning services. All these, and more of the latest facts and figures are available on the EU Ecolabel website.
Citizens’ awareness and trust in the EU Ecolabel are also increasing, as evidenced in the latest EU Flash Barometer 535 (September 2023). Based on responses from over 25.000 citizens, across the 27 EU Member States, 38% of EU citizens recognise the EU Ecolabel logo (an 11% increase since 2017), and the same percentage of citizens buy products with the EU Ecolabel, sometimes or often. Around 75% of EU citizens trust that products with the EU Ecolabel have a lower environmental impact than similar products on the market. They also believe that the EU Ecolabel guarantees environmental excellence (56%) and that all products comply with strict environmental criteria (69%).
World Ecolabel Day is not just about celebrating trusted ecolabels in different countries, but a reminder that consumers and market actors who choose and promote ecolabel goods and services play an essential role in the transition to a green, clean and circular economy.
The LIFE Programme and EU Ecolabel
LIFE has supported public authorities and the private sector in developing environmental management schemes and raising awareness to decrease the impact of their activities. LIFE has helped identify barriers to uptake and pioneered the implementation of EU Ecolabel and EMAS procedures and other green certification in diverse public and private sector contexts. Since 1992, LIFE has supported more than 140 projects specifically dealing with environmental certification (EU Ecolabel, EMAS, ISO14000, ETV, etc), mobilising a total budget of more than EUR 150 million. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have coordinated the majority of these projects. These enterprises come from a range of manufacturing and service sectors, including: marine aquaculture, wine production, tourism, agriculture, horticulture, cleaning products, printing, retail, sport and events and hospitals.
Several LIFE projects actively support the EU Ecolabel. They include:
LIFE CIRCforBIO - A circular economy system for multi-source biomass conversion to added-value products
LIFE I'M-TAN - LIFE Innovative Modified Natural Tannins
LIFETAN- Eco-friendly tanning cycle
LIFE TTG - The tough get going
More information
Details
- Publication date
- 12 October 2023
- Author
- European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency