Article as published in PackagingNews.co.uk - 16th November 2011
Carbon footprint labelling on products will help to portray packaging as "the solution rather than the problem", according to an industry expert.
UK-based carbon reduction firm Sustain said that multinational firms have been getting involved with a carbon footprint labelling pilot launched by the French government.
Speaking to PN, Sustain environmental accounting manager Jean-Yves Cherruault said that although this labelling initiative is not live in the UK yet, it is likely that if successful, it will come to the UK soon.
Cherruault said that packaging has a lower carbon footprint compared with the products they protect.
'Educate political circles'
Speaking about the impact of an initiative on packaging, Cherruault said: "It's a possibility for UK packaging firms to educate the consumers and political circle that packaging is not a problem, as is often portrayed, but a solution that has a very important purpose for reducing food waste.
"So, for the UK packaging industry it is a great policy to emphasise that packaging is the solution rather than the problem.
"It will also give the industry a chance to become more innovative and reduce its environmental impact.
"It is going to give more information to the consumer. The consumer has an appetite for this information and demands it more.
"It is an opportunity to educate the consumer to reduce their environmental impact through choosing product types which are more sustainable."
Big brands
In France, a total of 168 global companies across a range of industries including Heineken, Unilever and Procter & Gamble apply carbon labels to products.
The companies pitched to take part in the pilot and the scheme has proved so popular that some who were volunteering to submit themselves to stringent environmental measurement were turned down, according to Sustain.
The new rules, devised by Ademe, the French government energy and environment agency, and AFNOR, the French Standards Agency, require labels to show more than just the carbon footprint.
Sustain said that the "innovative part of this is that a multi-stakeholder engagement, facilitated by the above and representing all sectors and parties affected such as consumer protection groups, industrials, environmental groups…etc, is tasked to design the rules for specific product categories".
