ABSTRACT
The concept of product environmental labelling is potentially very beneficial to consumers, manufacturers and government. In preference to a national scheme, the United Kingdom supported the development of an European Union (EU)-wide Eco-label. The development and acceptance of lifecycle assessment has been crucial to the evolution of the EU Eco-label as a basis for the comparison of the quantitative environmental. The tactical difficulties of developing working criteria for the individual Eco-label groups are related to the strategic purpose of labelling in itself, as crucially the EU Eco-label was conceived as an instrument of consumer, not environmental, policy. Apart from links with packaging ordinances, the Eco-label is a very isolated policy mechanism. A poor understanding of consumer behaviour and motivation has been cited as stalling progress towards a label. International Organisation for Standardisation are involved in the process of resolving the legitimacy of the scheme, and are conscious of the label being interpreted as a trade barrier.
