Consumer Information seeks to facilitate the easy, practical and sustainable choices by consumers through the provision of accessible, reliable and verifiable sustainability information by market suppliers. The latter will aim to ensure that information about product sustainability is backed by credible science, communicated in a consistent manner and easily understood by all users.
Consumer information tools encompass ecolabels, voluntary standards, product declarations, marketing claims and life cycle approaches which provide information on the impacts of goods and services over their lifetime, including the end-of-life. These tools, also known as sustainability information tools, identify products according to their environmental and social attributes. The value of these tools relies on their ability to make the information about product sustainability available to the end-users.
10YFP Consumer Information Programme for Sustainable Consumption and Production
The 10 Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production (10YFP) was adopted at the Rio+20 conference. One of its six porgrammes is the Consumer Information Programme for Sustainable Consumption and Production (CI-SCP). It supports the provision of quality information on goods and services, and the identification and implementation of effective strategies to engage consumers in sustainable consumption. It empowers and raises the profile of relevant policies, projects and partnerships, and provides opportunities for collaboration between all sectors and stakeholders.
UN Environment is a member of the Programme’s Multi-stakeholder Advisory Committee and contributes to the Programme’s objectives and work plan with a number of activities.For more information on the Programme and how to get involved, refer to the SCP Clearinghouse.
Guidelines for Providing Product Sustainability Information
The Guidelines are the outcome of an international multi-stakeholder process led under the 10YFP Consumer Information Programme by UN Environment and the International Trade Center. Their ojective is to provide clear guidance for product-related sustainability information for all regions and companies of all sizes, and over time to create global consensus in this area. Ultimately, they aim to empower consumers to make reliable, informed sustainable choices. The Guidelines provide a set of high-level principles, ranging from fundamental to aspirational, to guide and encourage the provision of product sustainability information. Each principle includes a list of requirements or recommendations to be followed, as well as examples of ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ and reference to other relevant guidance material. In 2017, the Guidelines will be pilot tested in different regions and with different stakeholders (e.g. companies, governments, labeling bodies). More information is available on the SCP Clearinghouse, for any questions please contact ciscp@unep.org.
Advance Sustainable Consumption and Production project
The project “Advancing and Measuring Sustainable Consumption and Production (SCP) for a Low-Carbon Economy in Middle-Income and Newly Industrialized Countries” (Advance SCP) is funded through the German International Climate Initiative. The project is implemented jointly by UN Environment and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). It supports eight emerging economies spread across three regions of the world: in South-East Asia, GIZ coordinates implementation in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand; in Africa and Latin America, UN Environment coordinates implementation in Ethiopia, Morocco, Chile and Peru. The project is going from 2016-2018.
The project is aligned with the United Nations’ 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production patterns (10YFP) and contributes to several of the 10YFP’s programmes, but specifically to the Consumer Information Programme. The project supports the development and implementation of sustainability information systems, for informed consumption decisions leading to lower greenhouse gas emissions and improved resource efficiency along value chains. Project activities focus on strengthening institutions, technical training courses, knowledge transfer and drafting integrated policy solutions, including the identification and/or implementation of nationally appropriate mitigation actions (NAMAs).
Read more about progress in the pilot countries and the project’s global activities here.
Sustainable Public Procurement and Ecolabelling (SPPEL) project
The project “Stimulating the demand and supply of sustainable products through Sustainable Public Procurement and Ecolabelling” (SPPEL), funded by the EU Commission, builds on the foundation laid by UNEP’s work in the fields of Ecolabelling and SPP and seeks to combine these two instruments to better deliver the common goal of stimulating the demand and supply of sustainable products. The project is implemented at the national, regional and global levels, and will run from 2013 to 2017.
Through its national component, the project provides capacity building and advisory services for the combined implementation of ecolabelling and SPP in 13 countries. In 4 core countries with established ecolabelling programmes (India, Vietnam, Colombia, Brazil), the project seeks to align the goods and services prioritized through SPP with those covered or under development by existing ecolabels. In 9 the other countries (Mongolia, Morocco, Togo, Mauritius, Costa Rica, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Ecuador) the focus is on awareness-raising activities about the opportunities that ecolabels represent for the strengthening of the national SPP programme.
At the regional level, the SPPEL project aims to encourage South-South cooperation, regional collaboration on ecolabelling, voluntary standards, and the sharing of experiences related to ecolabelling and SPP implementation in two sub-regions, the Southern Cone (Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay) and South East Asia (ASEAN countries). The project also includes a knowledge management, outreach and communication component which aims to disseminate the tools and lessons learnt regionally and globally, and facilitate linkages and synergies with key international stakeholders and related initiatives.
Greening Economies in the Eastern Neighbourhood (EaP GREEN)
The "Greening Economies in the Eastern Neighbourhood" (EaP GREEN) partnership project is an EU financed regional programme that is being implemented to assist six Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) in their transition to green economies. The UNEP-led Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) demonstration component: “Stimulating innovation and more sustainable goods and services through sustainable public procurement”, harnesses the power of public procurement to stimulate the market for products with better environmental and social performance.
Market-driven product information tools such as ecolabelling help communicate information on the sustainability of products to guide purchasing choices of individuals, businesses and public authorities towards more sustainable products. Activities of this component include regional awareness raising and capacity building workshops on Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP), and the development and implementation of SPP policies in three countries (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine), where awareness raising and capacity development to enhance synergies between eco-labelling and SPP is being provided, targeting policy makers.
