1. Introduction
Many of today’s environmental issues are linked to private consumption. Between 1996 and 2012, the household consumption expenditure increased by 23% in the member states of the European Union. Reducing the impacts of European consumption requires fundamental changes in lifestyle.
Hence, it is important to dwell on the fact of how and what we consume and especially how this rather lavish consumption pattern can be changed into a more sustainable one.
In order to understand how we have reached this point of wasteful consumerism, it is crucial to look at our (industrial) history. The transition into our current mass production economy has encouraged people to consume lots of goods at low prices, regardless their impact on the environment. Besides, consumers buy more and more to fulfill a particular social status since they believe an expensive consumer pattern is equal to their own wealth.
All of this has resulted in a throwaway society that needs to be tackled. Consumers should be more conscious of their environmental footprint and green and sustainable consumerism should be promoted more.
The European Union has taken responsibility for this global issue through different initiatives. This paper will point out labeling as an important tool to encourage consumers in buying green products.
The following research questions will be addressed in this assignment:
– How is the environment being influenced by our current culture of consumption?
– How can we move away from the throwaway society?
– What do the terms ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ mean?
– How does the European Union inform consumers about eco-friendly purchases?
– Which are the European Union’s ecolabeling initiatives?
2. Consumerism
Consumerism stands for the conviction that personal wellbeing and happiness depend to a very large extent on the level of personal consumption, especially on the purchase of material goods. The belief is not simply that wellbeing depends upon a standard of living above some threshold, but that consumption and material possessions are at the center of happiness. Thus, materialism is one of the end results of consumerism.
Consumerism is economically manifested in the chronic purchasing of new goods and services, with little attention to their true need, durability, product origin or the environmental consequences of manufacture and disposal. It is driven by huge sums spent on advertising designed to create both a desire to follow trends, and the resultant personal self-reward system based on acquisition.
The Norwegian-American economist and sociologist VEBLEN introduced the term conspicuous consumption for this kind of behavior where consumers buy expensive items to display wealth, income and their social status rather than to cover their real needs.
Our wants, desires and longings are shaped in a way that we no longer only want to acquire goods because they are useful, but more because of what they say about us. The European Environment Agency has also acknowledged this problem of cultural and social influences on our current and potential future consumption.
2.1. Culture of Consumption and Mass Production Economy
The culture of consumption has developed together with the phenomenon of the mass production economy. This can be defined as the manufacture of large quantities of standardized products, typically characterized by some type of mechanization such as an assembly line to achieve high volume, the detailed organization of materials flow and division of labor.
Before, producers only made things to order. Since the mass production methods, the initiative for choosing products was taken out of the hands of the consumer and put into the hands of the manufacturer, whom produces large quantities of goods without having orders for them in advance.
From the 1920s onward, the social decision to produce unlimited quantities of goods created the foundation for our modern consumer culture. The economy was being divided into two entirely separate spheres. On one hand, there was the workplace where goods were produced. On the other hand, the household, in which they were consumed. People were trained to be both workforces and consumers in a culture of labor and spend. To make it worthwhile, mass production requires mass consumption and through advertisement, consumption was promoted. Marketers exploited the idea of consumer goods as status symbols and workers were manipulated into being avaricious consumers.
After World War II, the economies of all industrialized countries have transformed into such mass production economies. This created a society where the majority of households enjoys the benefits of increased productivity and constantly expands their range of consumer goods. Not just a few individuals nor the upper class, but the broad masses could participate in consumption and generate most of the demand.
This transformation brought a new concept of what necessities and needs are. Many consumer goods such as televisions, washing machines and air conditioners were considered luxuries before that time. Mass production led to an economic boom. As productivity improved, the prices of consumer goods went down and they became affordable to an increasingly large number of families. Mass production raised the standard of living for a large cross-section of people in the industrial world.
2.2. From a Throwaway Culture to a Circular Economy
The mass production and mass consumption however have disadvantages as well. As a result of the low prices at which goods are being offered, consumers are encouraged to buy more. Household consumption is a major driver of global resource use and associated environmental impacts.
It is also due to the rise of materialism that people are constantly tempted to buy new goods which creates a problem of wasteful consumerism. Greed, quantity not quality and the feeling of ‘never having enough’ feed this mass consumption. In my opinion, we all plead guilty by buying our lifestyle. Why do we still buy cheap clothes despite our closet is already packed? Why is it that we always feel a need to replace perfectly operational cellphones every one or two years?
The contemporary consumer has developed a ‘disposable’ mentality in a ‘throwaway’ culture. Our current society values transience and mobility instead of duration and stability and the newness of things over endurance. Furthermore, at some point households find it no longer economically advantageous to repair or maintain a product, but rather to replace it with a newer product. This isn’t illogical as repair prices continue to increase and prices of new products continue to decrease.
In the past, we relied on systems of reuse and recycle – not because we were environmentally conscious, but because we simply had no other way to replace our items.
Disposability, replacement and planned obsolescence have become the norm ever since our ability to mass-produce consumer goods. Unfortunately, the environment has to bear the consequences. At our current rate of consumption, we will face a point where supply will no longer match demand and where resources will be used up.
In spite of evolution and innovation, our industrial economy has hardly moved beyond one essential characteristic established in the early days of industrialization: a linear model of resource consumption. Raw materials are being harvested and extracted by companies to manufacture products and sell them to consumers who discard them when they no longer serve their purpose. This kind of traditional economy is resulting in shortages of the planet’s finite resources, while at the same time resulting in increased waste.
A circular economy , on the other hand, is an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design. This economic model is based on sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing and recycling in an (almost) closed loop with the intention to constantly retain the highest utility and value of products, components and materials. It replaces the end-of-life concept with repair, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals and so on. The aim is to limit the leakage of resources and to reduce waste in general as much as possible.
2.2.1. EU Circular Economy Package
The European Union has already taken measures to end this 'take-make-consume-throw away' pattern and move towards a more circular economy.
In 2014, the European Commission put forward an initial circular economy package . This proposal mainly focused on waste reduction targets. Afterwards, the pending legislative proposal was withdrawn to make way for an even more ambitious proposal that will cover the whole of the circular economy: from production and consumption to waste management and the market for secondary raw materials.
After the circular economy conference in Brussels, the Commission adopted this ambitious new Circular Economy Package on the 2nd of December 2015. It aims to help European companies and consumers to make the transition to a stronger economy in loops where resources are used in a more sustainable way.
FRANS TIMMERMANS, First-Vice-President of the European Commission, co-chaired the Package and stated the following: "Our planet and our economy cannot survive if we continue with the 'take, make, use and throw away' approach. We need to retain precious resources and fully exploit all the economic value within them. The circular economy is about reducing waste and protecting the environment, but it is also about a profound transformation of the way our entire economy works. By rethinking the way we produce, work and buy we can generate new opportunities and create new jobs. (…) This mix of smart regulation and incentives at EU level will help businesses and consumers, as well as national and local authorities, to drive this transformation."
Since the choices made by millions of consumers can support or hinder the circular economy, a chapter of the new Circular Economy Package is devoted to consumption. The Commission realizes that prices are a decisive aspect affecting the purchase of goods and therefore it encourages member states to provide incentives and use economic instruments to ensure that product prices better expose the environmental costs. Also the cumbersome implementation of the EU two-year legal guarantee will be addressed. Moreover, future work on eco-design of goods will help to make products more durable and easier to repair extending the product’s lifetime and avoiding waste. Another important part of the consumption puzzle is the problem of profusion of labels or environmental claims, which will be mentioned later in this paper.
3. Consumerism and the Environment
As global temperatures rise and natural resources grow scarcer, green or sustainable consumption patterns occupy an increasingly important role in promoting environmental awareness and reducing our ecological footprint.
3.1. Green Consumerism
Green consumerism can be defined as ‘a personal ethical orientation or as a set of pro-environmental personal values and attitudes that inform a particular form of socially conscious or socially responsible decision making’. It refers to the production, promotion and preferential consumption of goods and services based on their pro-environmental claims. Examples of green products are hybrid cars, fair trade coffee, energy-efficient television sets, etc.
A green consumer society may seem like a contradiction in terms because we have to admit that all products have an environmental impact. However, if adopt eco-friendly behavior is being adopted in our consumption pattern, this negative impact can be reduced as much as possible.
Green consumerism stands for a new idea of consumption. It creates a balance between the expectations of consumer behavior and businesses’ profit motives regarding the goal of environmental protection. Consumers are being asked to look at the entire life cycle of their purchases because a consumer does not only buy a product, also everything that is involved with its production and everything that will happen in the future as a result of that product is important.
3.1.1. Single Market for Green Products Initiative
But what is green on the European market? What makes a product green?
When a company wants to market its product as environmentally friendly in several EU member states, it will face a confusing range of choices of methods and initiatives since there is no definition of ‘green’ in EU legislation. This results in both costs for companies and confusion for consumers.
The European Commission is aware of this green maze and has therefore introduced the Building the Single Market for Green Products Initiative in 2013. It is a step towards removing the ambiguity of what truly constitutes a ‘green’ product or a ‘green’ organization.
The initiative establishes two methods to measure environmental performance throughout the lifecycle, namely the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) and the Organization Environmental Footprint (OEF). The European Commission has adopted a recommendation to stimulate the voluntary use of these methods by the member states, companies and private organizations.
The aim of the PEF and OEF is to allow and ease a higher uptake of green products and greener practices by companies in the EU market by contributing to the removal of potential barriers to the free circulation of green goods in the Single Market.
3.2. Sustainable Development and Consumption
In 1987, the United Nations published the report ‘Our Common Future’. This is often cited as the ‘Brundtland report’ referring to the Norwegian Gro Harlem Brundtland, Chair of the World Commission on Environment and Development. The UN was the first to define sustainable development and did it in the following way:
“Sustainable entities are those that meet present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs”.
In its resolution adopted on the 25th of September 2015, the UN has initiated the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. It contains 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are integrated and indivisible and balance the three dimensions of sustainable development: the economic, social and environmental. The SDGs follow and expand on the Millennium Development Goals in 2000 at the Millennium summit.
Concerning consumerism and the environment, the 12th Sustainable Development Goal is of uttermost importance: “Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns”.
3.2.1. Sustainability in the EU
Environmental concerns also play a crucial role in the European Union. Since it was included in article 6 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, sustainable development, in which sustainable production and consumption are embedded, has been an overarching objective of the EU policy.
Sustainable development has been mainstreamed into EU policies and legislation via the EU Sustainable Development Strategy (including Sustainable Development Goals), the EU 2020 Strategy and the EU 2030 Strategy.
Currently, sustainable development is a hot topic in the EU. Nevertheless, it is surprising that neither EU law nor EU policy clearly explains what the concept means and how it must be put into practice. Therefore, the EU often refers to the abovementioned UN’s definition in the Brundtland report. This definition is appealing because it formulates a powerful goal for sustainable development. Yet, it still doesn’t provide guidance on how sustainable development should be implemented.
Therefore, the following alternative definition could be proposed:
“Sustainable development means stimulating and encouraging economic development (e.g. more jobs, creativity, entrepreneurship and revenue), whilst protecting and improving important aspects (at the global and European level) of nature and society (inter alia natural assets, public health and fundamental rights) for the benefit of present and future generations”
3.3. Green vs. Sustainable
To a lot of people, the terms green and sustainable are interchangeable. While on the surface they seem synonyms, the two ideas are slightly different in their philosophy and by definition.
Going green is usually associated with individual products and processes that seek to achieve environmentally friendly results but with rather easy and inexpensive steps. Green behavior aims to make the world less unsustainable by buying or using products and services that reduce health and environmental impacts compared to similar products and services used for the same purpose. It is a deployment of tactics that tries to decrease the environmental impact of human activity and agricultural and industrial production.
Sustainability, on the other hand, calls for a cultural change in the definition of human needs and the renewal of our competitive individualist orientation to other individuals and towards possessions. Its aim is to break through the ideological veil of mass production and mass consumption without end and implies undertaking the required changes in our economic, social and urban processes to attain a dynamic, virtuous and balanced relationship with nature.
Sustainability is based on a tripod: economic vitality, environmental health and social equity. Green behavior distinguishes itself by balancing on only one leg, namely environmental improvement. In other words, going green allows the consumer to focus on a narrower agenda for change while leaving in abeyance the more politically sensitive and social equity leg.
Thus, the main difference between green and sustainability stems from the scale and scope of their policies and practices. Green evokes little incremental changes whereas sustainability entails a revolution in organizing our personal and collective lives and inhabiting the planet.
However, it is unnecessary to get caught up in trying to decipher the difference between green and sustainable. The core idea is to all make an effort to be less wasteful and more aware of how the products we use affect our environment to guarantee that future generations will be able to live on our fertile planet Earth. That’s why in this paper the terms green and sustainable will be used in their meaning of decreasing the environmental impact of consuming.
4. EU Labeling
The European environmental policy framework is mostly targeted on impacts that occur within Europe and on the production and end-of-life stages of products. The use of information-based instruments dominates, in part because international trade law limits the use of regulations and market instruments to influence production methods for imports. Theory holds that the flow of information among market participants plays a critical role in the efficient operation of markets. Therefore, labeling is an excellent tool, in particularly with respect to the provision of environmental information to consumers.
Since household consumption is an important factor in the transition to a green economy, it is of uttermost importance that consumers know what they are consuming and its environmental cost. Thus, the aim of product labeling is to inform consumers so they can purchase goods more wisely. Labels provide reliable information which guarantee the quality of a product or a service.
This chapter will discuss how the European Union provides information to its citizens about the ecological impact of certain goods through labeling.
4.1. Ecolabeling
Ecolabeling is a market-based instrument whose primary function is to stimulate the supply and demand of products with a reduced environmental impact. The ecolabel seal is awarded by a third party that provides information for consumers regarding environmental commitments of a specific product or service. The producers who want to use a label must conform to the label standards and pay a fee for the license. These standards can be adjusted or sharpened continuously.
During the last 30 years, an increasing number of environmental labels has been developed by individual companies, industrial sectors, NGO’s, national and international governmental organizations. The growing popularity of these labels must be seen in correlation with the benefits they presumably bring to companies and consumers.
From the company’s point of view, the labels are expected to legitimate its business practice, protect it from public regulation and help it gain competitive benefits. From the consumer’s perspective, the labeling will reduce uncertainty about the environmental performance of products and enable consumers to choose products that cause less damage to the environment. Consequently, there are many good reasons why companies should adopt environmental labeling schemes and why consumers should compensate such effort by purchasing environmentally labelled products and services.
BOSTRÖM defines green labeling in the following way: “As a kind of eco-standardization, green labeling is based on the standardization of principles and prescriptive criteria. This type of eco-standard is market-based and consumer oriented, and it relies on symbolic differentiation”.
Ecolabeling is expected to inform consumer choice and thereby stimulate spontaneous environmental improvement, diminish aggregated pollution and enable a healthy environmental competition among firms.
4.1.1. EU Ecolabel
In 1992, the European Commission introduced the EU Ecolabel. Since then, the EU Ecolabel experienced two major revisions, in 2000 and 2010 primarily with the intention of improving its implementation and acceptance by consumers and industry. The functioning of the EU Ecolabel is set through a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. The European Commission is responsible for its promotion, together with bodies from the member states.
The EU Ecolabel, also called the ‘Ecolabel flower’ , is a voluntary scheme. This means that producers, importers and retailers can choose to apply for the label for their products.
The Ecolabel is based on specific scientific environmental criteria, open to all businesses in a transparent and non-discriminatory manner. They are currently established for a wide range of non-food and non-medical product groups. These environmental criteria take the whole product life-cycle into account. All of the products that display the EU Ecolabel have been designed to guarantee that their main environmental impacts are reduced throughout the product’s life-cycle: from the extraction of the raw materials, to production, packaging and transportation, right through to use and disposal or recycling.
Consumers can easily identify environmentally-friendly products when they see the eco-flower sign. It stands for less waste, less pollution and products that are better for the planet.
4.1.2. EU Energy label
Since 1995, the EU Energy label has helped consumers making an informed choice when purchasing (household) appliances. In contrary to the EU Ecolabel, this label is not obtained on a voluntary basis. Producers are obliged to include these efficiency indications for the consumer.
The European legislation for the Energy label is based on a framework directive which lays down general principles and obligations. The label has been a driver of technological progress in appliances. Development in product design implies that the energy label has to be updated to remain informative and relevant. Nevertheless, the label layout has kept its uniform and simple design characteristics across the different product categories.
The basic elements of the label are seven energy classes, classified from A to G. The colors range from dark green which means high energy efficiency, to red which stands for low energy efficiency. Up to three additional classes can be added to the current A to G classification scale. Those additional classes will be A+, A++, and A+++ for the most efficient class.
For example, a refrigerator-freezer in class A+++ will consume on average 60% less than a refrigerator-freezer in class A. This illustration shows perfectly why it is of such importance that consumers are being well-informed about the energy efficiency of the household appliances they are planning to buy.
4.1.3. EU ENERGY STAR
ENERGY STAR is a leading labeling program in the field of energy efficiency of office equipment. The ENERGY STAR was firstly started by the United States Environment Protection Agency in 1992. Meanwhile, Australia, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand and the European Union have adopted the scheme.
The EU has adopted this label because of the lack of any energy labeling measure on office equipment products. In the United States, however, the Energy Star scheme covers a far wider scope of products of which most products are in the EU covered by the Ecodesign and/or energy labeling measures.
Manufacturers can participate in the program on a voluntary basis. The star sign facilitates consumers to identify energy efficient computers, servers, displays, imaging equipment and UPSs.
Products with ambitious requirements in terms of energy efficiency can be labelled with this logo. These requirements are set assuming that not more than 25% of the products placed on the current market can be awarded with the Energy Star. This encourages competition and results in a growing number of new products subsequently placed on the market that deserves the label. However, once about 75% of the products can satisfy the minimal requirements, a revision process will be initiated and new specification requirements will be introduced. When these new requirements come in force, no product is allowed to show the logo unless it has been approved under the new specification levels.
4.2. EU Ecodesign
Regulations on ecolabeling define how products can be labelled when they are in accordance with certain requirements, such as eco-friendliness or energy efficiency levels. The Ecodesign directive, on the other hand, defines criteria that all products must conform to before they are allowed to be sold on the market in the 28 member states of the EU.
Whereas the ecolabels are widely used in stores and are broadly recognized by most people, the Ecodesign is different. Ecodesign acts invisibly, delivering economic and qualitative benefits to European citizens. European consumers will notice lower energy bills because of these energy savings, however, they are not aware that it is the Ecodesign measures that have brought them these improvements.
The Energy Label complements the Ecodesign, therefore the combination of the Ecodesign standards and EU Energy Label is considered as one of the most effective policy tools in the area of energy efficiency.
The focus of Ecodesign is to lower the environmental impact throughout the product’s whole life cycle: from the earliest stage of design until the end-of-life stage and the recycling.
The EU Ecodesign Directive establishes a framework under which manufacturers of energy-using products are obligated to reduce the energy consumption and other negative environmental impacts occurring throughout the product life cycle. Only the products that fulfil the minimum Ecodesign requirements are allowed on the European market.
The European Commission provides a working plan setting out, for the three following years, an indicative list of energy-related products groups which will be considered priorities for the undertaking of preparatory studies and eventual adoption of implementing measures. Through these product-specific regulations, the directive is being implemented. Examples of products groups are air conditioners and comfort fans , computers , refrigerators and freezers , etc.
Recently, there has been set out a new working plan for 2016-2019.
4.3. Criticism on ecolabeling
The Ecolabel Index directory is currently tracking 465 different ecolabels in 199 countries and across 25 industry sectors. In Europe, consumers are being faced with an estimated 239 ecolabels.
It is obvious that the proliferation of ecolabels and certificates has made the labeling structure immensely complex. This can be an issue for consumers to have trust in the real ecological impact of a product bearing an ecolabel.
At last, there is concern that ecolabeling could lead to commercial wars with, on balance, a negative outcome for the industry as a whole.
5. Conclusion and Personal Opinion
The topic discussed in this paper is very interesting, yet at the same time worrisome and alarming. We could bring up excuses by telling that the environmental problems our planet is suffering from are solely the fault of industry and factories who cause pollution.
Despite this, we – as consumers – are all to blame.
We don’t consume, we overconsume. Our choices are mostly led by materialism, in other words by how what we buy might say something about who we are or rather who we want to be. This changed our society into a throwaway culture with a giant waste mountain.
Individual consumption has an impact on this global issue. Fortunately, promoting green and sustainable consumerism has already created an increased environmental consciousness among a lot of consumers. This growing trend of buying eco-friendly products should be maintained. Therefore, ways of encouraging people to act green are very useful.
The EU has also taken responsibility in this matter. Through the Circular Economy Package, it tends to tackle our current throwaway society. The innovation is the lifecycle point of view that is taken into account: from the design and production to the moment when the product is no longer being used and should be thrown away or preferably recycled.
Acknowledging the fact that consumers have a great environmental impact when buying products, the EU has put forward ecolabeling initiatives. These labels provide correct and reliable information for the consumer. Due to the easy recognizable labels or clear energy schemes, consumers can compare products and choose the one that is the most kind for the environment.
However, the governments, intergovernmental organizations, NGO’s and companies who invent ecolabels have to beware that a proliferation of ecolabels can oppose the objective of labeling and decrease the consumer’s trust in the fact that the labeled product is truly better for the environment.
Under the motto, ‘every little bit helps’, consumers need to be aware that their daily life choices affect the environment and that small changes in their consumer pattern can make a difference in order to preserve our planet.