Benchmarking and additional environmental information in ... - ANEC

• Facilitating the identification of preferable products by selecting
appropriate benchmarks, derived e.g. from type I eco-labels (thresholds
for acceptability) and scales, e.g. as they are known and accepted in
energy labelling schemes.
• Displaying the information in a comprehensible manner, e.g. using
graphic displays.
1.3 Approach
The basic approach of the study was to examine a broad range documents
relating to provision of environmental information to consumers and make use
of single elements as appropriate. A review was made of
• Standards dealing with Type III environmental labels
• Type I eco-label criteria and background documents for construction
products and energy-using products
• Other eco-label criteria
• The ANEC 2005 study “Consumer demands on Type III environmental
declarations” by 2.-0 Consultants
• Literature on consumer perception and understanding of eco-label
information
The review focused on identifying elements and approaches, which can be
considered as useful in the communication of environmental information.
Special attention was given to the issue of providing “additional environmental
information”, i.e. information which is more related to chemical properties of
consumer products than to the life cycle environmental impacts which are the
conventional focus is environmental product declarations.
Inclusion of “additional environmental information” is existing EPD-approaches
is, however, relatively modest, and dedicated tools for this were therefore
developed in dialogue with ANEC and exemplified in eight cases in the form of
so-called Environmental Data Sheets (EDS).
The core information in an EDS is
• A checklist, where the environmental properties of a product is related to
the demands established through relevant eco-label criteria
• Environmental performance in relation to energy-labelling criteria (only
relevant for energy-using products)
• Indoor Air Quality, as reflected by verifiable testing schemes (only
relevant for building products)
• Rating of chemical content, using a newly developed approach (only
tested on building products, but also relevant for other types of consumer
products)
• A summary of the most relevant environmental aspects for the product
group, including an overview of the relative importance compared to
other product groups as reflected by life cycle studies
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