Get low carbon labels and sustainability certifications

You can use low carbon labels (otherwise known as eco labels or green stickers)
and sustainability certifications to show that your products:

● meet environmental standards
● are reducing emissions

According to a 2020 study by the Carbon Trust, there is a growing global demand
for product labels that show carbon emissions.

The Carbon Trust reported that 64% of UK consumers feel better buying from
businesses they know are reducing emissions (up from 53% in 2016).There are a number of product labels that certify low carbon emissions or other beneficial environmental actions.

Get low carbon labels
Measure your carbon footprint
Get your product certified
Get other sustainability certifications
Avoid making misleading environmental claims
Get local support and funding

Get low carbon labels

Low carbon labels show that your product or service is reducing emissions through:

low energy use
not using toxic substances
using recyclable packaging
protecting natural resources or habitats

How low carbon labels help consumers and your business

Low carbon labels make it easier for consumers to:

choose more environmentally friendly products
check how sustainable your business is

Your business can use low carbon labels to:

design better products
identify waste in the production process
lower costs and improve efficiency
attract investment

You’ll need to do both of the following so you can use low carbon labels on your products:

measure your product carbon footprint
get your product certified

Measure your carbon footprint

You need to measure and certify the carbon footprint (greenhouse gas emissions) of your product to use low carbon labels on your products.

You can do this either:

across your organisation
for individual products

Use lifecycle product footprints to measure emissions

You can measure your product carbon footprint by measuring the lifecycle emissions of the product.

Lifecycle product footprints measure:

the total greenhouse gas emissions generated by developing a product
emissions across the product life cycle, from raw materials to when it gets to the consumer or end of product life
emissions in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e)

Check scope to get the right certification

You need to check the scope (otherwise known as boundary) associated with your product carbon footprints so you can get the right type of certification.

These scopes are:

cradle-to-gate for business-to-business (B2B) products – this measures total greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of raw materials and product manufacture up to the factory gate (before it is transported to the consumer)
cradle-to-grave for business-to-consumer (B2C) products – this measures total greenhouse gas emissions from the extraction of raw materials through the product’s manufacture, distribution, storage, usage and end-of-life stages

Get your product certified

You can certify your product in different ways.

How you certify your product will depend on both the:

type of claim you’re making
level of carbon reductions you’re trying to make

You will usually need to pay an organisation that manages certification and labelling to get your products certified.

Be aware that labelling organisations can use different international standards to measure the product life cycle.

International standards used to measure product life cycle include:

You cannot use the EU Ecolabel Scheme to certify your product if you are:

in England, Scotland or Wales
trying to certify products and packaging placed on the European Economic Area (EEA) or Northern Ireland (NI) market on or after 31 December 2020

Find out more about using the EU Ecolabel Scheme for NI businesses.