1 Introduction
1) Our Committee regularly examines the targets
and policies of government as they relate to environmental protection
and sustainable development. These often rely on changing behaviour,
both in industry and among individuals. Environmental labelling
schemes are an important means of supporting this change.
2) In July 2008 the Government set out its strategy
for improving product sustainability. This recognised that environmental
labels can play an important role in communicating the value and
purpose of environmental benchmarks and standards to consumers.[1]
Labelling is only one part of a wider strategy to improve standards
across industry, but labels remain the primary means of communicating
these improvements to consumers and engaging them in this process.
3) In 2007 we established a Sub-Committee to
examine what action the Government was taking to support and encourage
the development of relevant and effective environmental labelling
schemes. The Sub-Committee's inquiry aimed to investigate the
potential of environmental labelling. It focused on a number of
schemes as case studies, notably the environmental labelling of
vehicles, green electricity tariffs, white goods, and food. The
inquiry also examined recent moves towards embodied carbon labelling.
1 Defra, Progress Report on Sustainable Products and
Materials, July 2008, p38 Back
|
