Ready to Drive the Market - Experiences from Road Testing the Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information

A new UN report Ready to Drive the Market - Experiences from Road Testing the Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information was launched on the 11th of March 2019 at the Fourth United National Environment Assembly (UNEA-4), in Nairobi, Kenya, which is the world's highest-level decision-making body on the environment. The report reflects the importance of collaboration in the field of consumer information and so directly links to the Ministerial Declaration of UNEA-4 which recognises the importance of different stakeholders working together to develop innovative solutions to sustainable consumption and production.

Increasing the availability of reliable information to guide consumers’ decision-making is crucial to help accelerate the world’s transition towards more Sustainable Consumption and Production policies and practices. This has been internationally recognized in the Sustainable Development Goals through target 12.8.

Although there are many important initiatives under way globally, changes in practices are urgently needed in the provision of trustworthy consumer information. In light of this, after launching the Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information in 2017, UN Environment and the International Trade Centre – within the framework of the One Planet network Consumer Information Programme – embarked on a new journey: to use the Guidelines as a practical tool to help organizations avoid the potential for green washing and to best communicate products’ sustainability performance. 

28 organizations from across the world coveringmore than 10 industry sectors participated in the voluntary road testing of the Guidelines which examined the applicability of the Guidelines’ 10 Principles to a real life sustainability claim and the results of this innovative and collaborative exercise are shared in the new report Ready to Drive the Market. 

“The use of a global standard where all companies and products use the same basic framework and criteria will be very helpful. This will ensure that we do not miss anything as we develop claims and also try to use one basic set of principles”

declared Vance Merola, from Colgate-Palmolive, one of the participating organizations – our so called ‘road-testers’.

In the report, available for download on the One Planet network website, it is possible to discover how the participating companies and labelling organizations perceived the application of the Guidelines 10 Principles to their claims, where their strengths lie and which common challenges they face. For instance, amongst the main results, availability of space on pack, complexity of sustainability information and the lack of harmonized approaches and definitions were described as the main challenges for organizations to excel when communicating about their products’ sustainability performance. 

The report also presents relevant insights and new ideas on how to progress in the field of product sustainability information through enhancing collaboration and synergies and working at the policy level. The outcomes of this global road testing exercise can be useful for governments, authorities responsible for overseeing claims on a national level, industry and sectoral initiatives, and corporate areas such as marketing, procurement and product development – key actors that have the potential to drive changes in practices in communicating with consumers on sustainability. Also, civil society and policy makers can benefit from having access to information on the efforts and challenges faced by companies in communicating sustainability information on their products. 

The report is complemented by a number of case studies that are published separately, with the objective of inspiring practitioners and help them drive new innovative approaches when communicating with consumers. The case studies are also available on the One Planet network website and show concrete, real-life applications of the Guidelines, from small, medium and multinational organizations. 

“After joining this initiative, we see the need to involve all teams who manage social media, online as well as our in-store customer communications, to understand how we can help customers to act sustainably during the purchase, use, and disposal of our products. We will be looking to incorporate the principles in the Guidelines into Woolworths' procedures in the future”

shared Elaine Clayton, from Woolworths Group Limited.

The preparation and publication of the report was made possible through the sponsorship of the Ministry for Ecological and Solidary Transition, France and the project “Advancing and measuring sustainable consumption and production (SCP) for a low- carbon economy in newly industrialised countries (Advance SCP)”. Advance SCP is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.