ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses environmental product information schemes (EPIS) in light of theoretical developments in the social sciences. It deals with integrated product policy and the shift in focus of environmental policy towards products, with the definition and classification of EPIS and first-party and third-party environmental labelling. J. Gronow and A. Warde used the history of consumer research to place their contribution within the main trends in social sciences. When Germany initiated an eco-label in the late 1970s the initiative presupposed some consumer and business interest and a general view of environmental problems as being solvable; schemes for waste handling also have to rely on consumer interest and co-operation. The theoretical foundations were laid in Germany in the 1980s, when M. Janicke and Huber started to renew the approach to thinking about society and the environment after observing the development of German environmental policy.
