Promotion of ecolabels
The Ministry of Agriculture (Hungary) is responsible for the promotion of EU-Ecolabel and the national ecolabel. With a social media campaign and an online high-school competition in 2021, our aim was to raise awareness on the function and importance of ecolabels.
Making more conscious consumer choices is more important than ever. Although the receptivity of greener solutions is growing among the Hungarian population, with an increasing tendency of using green products, there is a significant knowledge gap on ecolabels which has an impact on the demand.
Ecolabels are based on life-cycle assessments and are credible logos for environmentally sound products, thus contribute to sustainable production and consumption. The EU-Ecolabel or the national Hungarian ecolabel is awarded to products and services meeting high environmental standards according to strict criteria. However, greenwashing is also gaining ground in the country.
The social media campaign in 2021, involved a short educational video on the EU Ecolabel, the Hungarian ecolabel and other relevant national ecolabels that can be found on products in Hungary. The video has been uploaded on different social media platforms with up-to-date posts.
The goal of the competition among high-school students (also in 2021) was to dispel misconceptions on the numerous green product labels among young people and to acquaint them with the role and background of ecolabels. Creative tasks helped them understand how prodigally most of us live and what key changes are needed to turn it into sustainable. Environmentally sound products, that bear reliable logos such as the ecolabels, provide an excellent tool towards sustainability.
Both projects targeted consumers and costumer habits.
As for the future, we also plan to reach out to producers and make the ecolabels more attractive to them. While encouraging producers to use EU-Ecolabel or the Hungarian national ecolabel, we need to build up their prestige and strengthen the demand side to boost the supply. Therefore, along with incentives to producers, communication and marketing activity remain to be important parts of the promoting strategy.
The promotion of EU and national ecolabels can also play a significant to tackle the issue of green washing.
