More than two out of three consumers (69%) have chosen a product thanks to a favourable ‘Eco-score’, while 67% have shunned one because of a low rating. Some 15% said the score has helped them reduce their meat consumption. More than nine in 10 (92%) want the labels to become mandatory.
The results are from a survey of 6,000 consumers that use supermarkets, restaurants and delivery apps that have begun scoring some, or all, of their products under the ‘Eco-score’ scheme run by the Eco2Initiative, a consultancy.
Products are scored out of 100. Based on this they are placed in a colour-coded band: from high impact ‘red’ products (0 to 20) to low impact ‘dark green’ ones (80 to 100), a bit like traffic light labels for nutrition. The score is created using life cycle assessments but points can also be won and lost based on other criteria, such as provenance, third party certification schemes (like Fairtrade) and recyclability of packaging.
The Eco-score now accompanies thousands of products in Europe. Carrefour has labelled 25,000 products, while Elior has been testing the labels in seven of its restaurants in France for two months. Trials are also underway in Lidl stores in Scotland.
The score has already “become a lever for modifying consumer purchasing behaviour”, according to the Eco2Initiative. Some 85% of French consumers now recognise it.
France, where the initiative began, could soon make eco-labelling mandatory for food products. This could provide the “inspiration” for a mooted EU-wide scheme, according to the European Environmental Bureau, a campaign group. Stefan Goethaert, from the Colruyt Group, a retailer in Belgium, is “convinced” that the scoring system can become “the navigator for the ecological footprint of food products throughout the European Union”.
In the UK, there is also heightened interest in industry-led schemes. Foundation Earth launched a front-of-pack scheme last year, involving the likes of Costa and Nestlé. Compass has been running small trials with researchers in the Livestock, Environment and People labelling (LEAP) group at the University of Oxford, while Benugo has added carbon footprints to all its hot drinks menus.
The Environment Agency is also running a project to develop a common set of environmental metrics that could be used by food companies.
Foodsteps, meanwhile, has created a carbon label for restaurants and hospitality businesses in the UK. The tech startup is also involved in
OmniAction – a new initiative that promises to “curate a global, agreed framework on the criteria all food should be assessed against”. The project is designed to address the lack of regulation and accountability in five key metrics, covering environment, labour, land, food safety and nutrition.
“Poor nutrition should not be a trade-off for causing less damage to the environment; just as poor labour rights, land tenure, or food safety should not have to be traded off – we need to examine all these impacts,” said co-founder Tim Lang, emeritus professor at City University, London. Lang first proposed a multi-criteria approach to food standards more than a decade ago. “Now the technology makes it possible,” he said.
