The European Commission published a preliminary action plan on sustainability last month which is just one step the EU is taking to reach it's goal of reducing green house gas emissions 20% by 2020. The plan focuses on "improving the overall environmental performance of products throughout their life-cycle, promoting and stimulating the demand of better products and production technologies, and enabling consumers to make better choices."
One component of the new plan will extend the previously enacted Energy Efficiency Labeling Directive to cover a wider range of products. The current labeling scheme applies only to energy-using products such as refrigerators. Examples of products that may be included in the new labeling scheme include clothing, cleaning products, furniture, and others. The new labels would rank the products on their environmental performance.
Additionally, the new labeling program would obligate public entities to purchase products above a selected level in the range of labeling categories. This is significant because, according to the report, European public entities spend the equivalent of 16% of the EU GDP on goods and services.
This report is just an early draft and is at a fairly high-level. The exact details of the new labeling directive are unknown at this point and implementation of the program could be a ways down the road. Nevertheless, if and when this becomes effective, it will surely be costly for manufacturers and retailers doing business in the EU and could potentially become a model for regulation or voluntary programs here at home.
Bret Finkelstein
