PS22268 - Economic Case for Sector Agnostic Ecolabels

***** THIS IS AN AWARD NOTICE, NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION *****

This procurement is being concluded following a Open Market tender

Brief Description of Requirement

Eco-labels can guide environmentally conscientious customers to select products and services based on trustworthy environmental and social criteria. This informs purchasing decisions by providing information on environmental footprint of how the products have been manufactured and produced, which is often opaque and complex due to global supply chains. It remains challenging to make sustainable purchase decisions for most of customers.

To date, there are currently no internationally agreed standards for environmental sustainability labelling, and with around 460 eco labels globally there is a growing need for a consistency framework informed by environmental science data to help customers to understand genuinely environmentally friendly products . In addition, there is no agreed measures of product sustainability, e.g., greenhouse gas emission, water use and biodiversity impact etc . As such, the Chief Scientific Officer at Food Standard Agency (FSA) has recently urged an urgent introduction to an eco-labelling system through collaboration between business, academia and government, so that the food system can be set on a path to sustainability. He explained "Transforming the food system into one that is fully sustainable relies on a unified approach to data sharing and food labelling that is both transparent and accurate. The eco-labelling of foods, for example, can enable consumers to compare the environmental footprint of different products and enable them to make choices about the impact this has on their diet. This requires unprecedented level of collaboration between business, academia and government. Developing a single (eco-label) system will require close coordination between business, an enhanced assurance capability for regulators and expert input from behaviour science to be sure the end product is clearly and accurately understood by consumers". He highlighted "there is a golden opportunity now for businesses to work together with each other and the public sector in order to create a coherent voluntary scheme that can be easily morphed into a mandatory one in due course". A mandatory food nutrient label has helped to drive business changes (e.g., reformulation) and made it easier for public to make better informed food choices.