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A Research Report submitted to the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters in Science (course work / research report). 28 October 2015 / Eco-labels are voluntary policy tools for promoting environmental justice. Eco-labels have the potential to achieve environmental justice when they are environmentally reliable, and when they help consumers to be aware of, understand and feel motivated to purchase eco-labels. This study analysed the current situation of eco-labels in South Africa. There are a number of generic eco-labelling terms that have come into use on eco-labelled products. The history of the environmental problems that led to the use of these generic terms, along with the accreditation of such eco-labels was considered. The six most commonly found terms considered are “Dolphin Safe”, “Badger Friendly Honey”, “Genetically Modified Organism (GMO)-free”, “Natural”, “Free-range” and “Organic”. The environmental reliability of the most common eco-labels found in local supermarkets was analysed. Overall, eco-labels scored well on environmental soundness and transparency but lacked in communication with consumers. The majority of the eco-labels were third-party certified and accredited by ISEAL (International Social and Environmental Accreditation and labelling) and IFOAM (International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements). There are a variety of eco-labelled products for consumers to choose from in major supermarkets but the ratio of eco-labelled to regular food products is low, and the availability of eco-labelled products is not consistent. A questionnaire was used to assess the awareness, understanding and perception of consumers regarding eco-labels. The results were compared to a similar study on Swedish consumers to determine whether South African consumer perception regarding eco-labels differed greatly from first-world perceptions, as South African consumers have not had as much exposure to eco-labelled products. Consumer awareness and understanding varied significantly between local and international eco-labels. Generally, the number of consumers that have fully adopted eco-labels is low. However, South African consumers were found to have a pro-environmental attitude; many respondents felt that they would be willing to purchase eco-labelled products if they knew more about the eco-label. Improved stakeholder engagement among eco-labelling initiatives, supermarkets and consumers is required to foster better consumer knowledge of eco-labels and promote environmental justice locally.

In a market economy, the behaviour of firms determines the extent and type of anthropogenic impacts that affect natural ecosystems. As such it is critical that the regulation of corporate behaviour is closely appraised. All economic production systems use natural resource inputs and release waste emissions to environmental sinks; they also contribute to sustainability in terms of income generation. The analysis of economic efficiency is thus coined in terms of juxtaposing and balancing these effects and the role of regulation is to intervene so that the outcome (in terms of corporate behaviour) approximates to this theoretical social optimum. Determining optimal regulation is the core focus of this thesis. The role of environmental regulation has become prominent of late owing to developments in the science (and social science) of climate change and ecosystems functioning. It has also been strongly influenced by the Porter Hypothesis (PH) which challenges the non-interventionist doctrine of neo-classical economics in favour of stricter environmental regulation, based on the presumption that significant pollution offsets are available if and only firms are forced to search for eco-innovations. In order to progress the argument vis-à-vis optimal regulation it is first essential to explore the role of the firm in society, i.e. what the responsibilities of industry ought to be with respect to the sustainability agenda. I juxtapose and critically appraise functionalist theory and its associated utilitarian ethic with social permission theory; the outcome of this analysis is the contention that ‘I&We’ deontological theory is the most defensible alternative and as such a firm’s fiduciaries ought to balance the conflicting claims of stakeholders, i.e. shareholders are important but not paramount. Given this outcome, the role of the regulator is to intervene when the market for ‘green’ corporate behaviour does not function. There are various reasons outlined as to why such intervention might be required. On the demand side, evidence is presented of consumers’ willingness-to-pay for perceived environmental quality. This product attribute is typically a credence attribute and there is asymmetric information; there is an incentive for ‘greenwashing’, i.e. false or misleading environmental marketing claims. The strategic behavioural model developed herein implies that the status quo is potential sub-optimality in that consumers play a mixed strategy and, over time, there is the potential for a vicious cycle in that progressively less and less ‘green’ marketing claims are genuine. On the supply side, firms may be ‘satisficing’ as opposed to optimising with respect to eco-innovations; a firm’s search for and selection of innovation is path-dependent, i.e. the history of innovations is influential. This supports the PH in that stimulating a shift to an eco-innovation trajectory realises benefits not only in the current time period but into the future. I also demonstrate that firms may be ‘locked in’ to technological paths that are sub-optimal (and environmentally damaging) owing to ‘coordination effects’ and as such there is a further role for economically efficient regulatory intervention on the supply side. Well-designed regulation can improve economic welfare in that it might propagate a shift in (as opposed to movement along) abatement cost curves. This in turn implies a convergence between the ‘best’ level of pollution for the polluter and for society, therein ameliorating the potential deadweight losses from the strategic interaction between the polluter and the regulator.

Eco-labels are increasingly important to certify food that is produced under sustainable conditions. In this paper variables are analysed that are important for consumers’ purchase decisions of eco-labelled food exemplified by the case of Fairtrade products. The focus lies on the distinction between people’s subjective (perceived) knowledge and objective knowledge (actual) about the Fairtrade label. The empirical data for the study was gathered by a survey, which involved a quota sampling of 203 people in Berlin. The results justify the distinction between subjective and objective knowledge. Subjective knowledge proved to be a strong predictor for both attitude and consumption towards the label, whereas objective knowledge did not show a significant influence. Further, attitude in general was confirmed to be a predictor for the consumption of Fairtrade products.

This thesis analyzes systems of product labeling. The aim is to assess the current state of the product labeling and may propose possible improvements. It brings a description and analysis carried out most of the current product labeling systems used in the Czech Republic. The conclusion provides an analysis of the labeling especially in ecological terms, as well as the shortcomings in the system of labeling, such as lack of propagation, lack of cooperation of providers brand and lack of cooperation of Ministry of the Environment with the providers and lack of standardization and fragmentation.

The environmental concern has become a well discussed topic within today’s society and as a result awareness of the impact human behaviour has on the environment is continuously increasing. This concern is something companies take advantage of when marketing, as for instance by promoting their products or services as eco-labelled. Eco-labelled products have further shown to involve a lot of consumer opinions, and are thus common to study in relation to consumer attitudes. Theories also show that eco-labelled goods have been idealised in favour of conventional ones, referred to as a marketing placebo effect. In connection to this, companies have started to point interest at eco-labelled technology, which has become a recent phenomenon attracting attention. Nonetheless, the existing theory regarding this phenomenon has been mainly applied on specific areas, such as the food industry. The purpose of this study was therefore to explain the marketing placebo effect on eco-labelled technology. 162 experiments were conducted using one experiment group and one control group, in order to be able to detect an eventual marketing placebo effect when implementing an eco-label, using attitudes as an influencer. Based on the results, it was revealed that attitudes are crucial to take into consideration when applying an eco-label in a technology context. This as it was concluded that attitudes act as a trigger evoking a marketing placebo effect. The findings from this study contradicts current theories on how different factors cooperate in the process of a marketing placebo effect, and advances has thus been made in how the marketing placebo effect works when applied in a technology context.

Maintaining the current course of the global society is threatening the human civilization. The urgency of the situation, understood from empirical research, has caused many researchers to call for more prescriptive research as a necessary supplement, to better support decision making for sustainability. While policymakers need to direct and stimulate sustainable production and consumption through, e.g., legislation and market phenomena such as eco-labelling, business represents a significant proportion of the necessary resources, capabilities and mechanisms for the innovation needed for a transition towards sustainability. However, while businesses more and more realize the self-interest in working proactively with sustainability, there is a desire for better support for how to do this also from this end. Such support needs to consider a significant shift going on in business; that individual businesses tend to no longer compete as autonomous entities, but rather as supply chains. Thus, no company is more sustainable than its supply chain partners. Therefore, sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) as a business function, and sustainable procurement as a subset thereof, plays an increasingly pivotal role for sustainable development. The overall aim of this thesis is to contribute to sustainable development by studying how three phenomena; eco-labelling, procurement and supply chain management are related to each other and to a strategic sustainability perspective, and to suggest how these phenomena can be integrated with such a perspective to provide better support for decision making and innovation for sustainability. For this purpose, a framework for strategic sustainable development, including a definition of sustainability and generic guidelines to inform stepwise strategic plans towards sustainability, is used as a foundational methodology. The development of new approaches is also based on case studies with eco-labelling and sustainable public procurement bodies, businesses and public institutions. Information is collected by shadowing of criteria development and collaboration processes, interviews and literature studies. While the findings point to a clear rational for all of the phenomena and several strengths in existing schemes and practices, the findings also point to several shortcomings. Sustainability is not defined, and as a result, there is no foundation for strategic and proactive approaches. Furthermore, decisions are not based on considerations of all dimensions of sustainability, the whole life cycle of products, all relevant stakeholders and a long-term perspective. As a result, the full potential of these phenomena for contributing to sustainable development is not utilized. This thesis prescribes enhanced processes for eco-labelling, sustainable procurement and SSCM, and shows how these can support organisations in developing from reacting individually on known sustainability-related problems to acting proactively and collaboratively in supply chains, in a coordinated and economically viable way, on society’s remaining gap to the full scope of ecological and social sustainability.

Due to greater awareness of the need to conserve the world's resources - one direction is to promote products with less environmental impact during manufacturing processes. There are different perspectives to understand what is driving this development towards environmental production. On one hand, producers manage their production with less environmental impact either of an integrated environmental management of the company or because of regulatory requirements in steering manufacturing, especially under circumstances in Sweden. The development may also be because of responding to market demand for eco-labelled prod-ucts. My case studies have two approaches of qualitative research in order to answer the research questions: The first angle, makes a description of how a company has adapted to environmental production conditions, and examine the product development process and the choice of implementing product groups in its range. The second angle is from a customer perspective, exploring choices of specific products. The study begins with the producer Lud-vig Svensson AB and their brand Svensson Markspelle of their eco-labelled furniture fabrics and then followed by a comparison of the different kind of customers within the brand. The findings of the thesis revealed that, Ludvig Svensson has adjusted to a sustainable production since before the implementation of an eco-label. It also shows that there is a need for greater information about the company’s environmental work out to customers as eco-labels is limited in its message as a communication tool, regardless whether the eco-label is part of the ongoing environmental work or not. More customer-oriented information could make a difference as an eco-label is a simple message for complex conditions. There is also an op-portunity to increase knowledge. However, it is important to emphasize that although the organization Ecolabelling Sweden has a responsibility to raise awareness about eco-labels they certify for. Findings of the customer study showed that the choices that govern the public environment are complex. At many times other requirements such as washability, durability and flame resistance are put higher than the choice of an upholstery fabric. To be envi-ronmental friendly in product selection is not just about choosing a product with minor envi-ronmental impact, but high quality is such as great environmental choice. The study also showed that there are general aspects that are problematic to make environmentally con-scious choices and the obstacles of lack of knowledge in some areas come from several directions with regard to conditions in the public procurement. / Program: Magisterutbildning i Applied Textile Management

<p>Eco-labelling is a way to promote sustainable development. This is a quantified study about purchase behaviour regarding eco-labelled seafood in Sweden, based on interviews with a convenience sample of consumers in situ. The objectives were to establish how large the knowledge of eco-labelled seafood is, to investigate the reasons for acquiring the product and thus determine the prime driving force to do it. The willingness to pay for eco-labelled seafood was also investigated. The results show a low awareness where just about a quarter of the respondents knew that eco-labelled seafood existed. The willingness to pay was high; four out of five were ready to spend additional money on an eco-labelled product. Women displayed a higher willingness to pay than men, which supports previous research. Regarding the reasons to purchase the only options presented to the respondents were environmental concern, enhanced health or both alternatives in combination. Health as the single factor was the least preferred choice and the two other alternatives were favoured to an equal amount. A difference in purchase behaviour can be detected among respondents with awareness of ecolabelled seafood when compared to those without. Those aware stated a willingness to pay to a higher degree and also displayed more environmental concern and less health interest than those unaware of eco-labelled seafood.</p>

<p>The aim with this study is to evaluate if standardization of sustainable housing is a practical solution to address the objectives/reach the goals of sustainable housing. The point of departure is that eco-labelling of houses is a way to put sustainable housing into practice. The Nordic Swan criteria for small houses and the UK Code for Sustainable Homes are two recently developed schemes for sustainable construction and design. These two labelling systems are chosen as case studies in order to compare and examine the practice of sustainable housing. How can the goals of sustainable housing be met in the form of eco- labelling? What are the benefits and obstacles/limitations for the cases to be effective and sustainable?  What can explain differences between the two cases? And is the function and organisation of the cases best explained by sustainable development ideas or ecological modernization?  It is suggested in the view of path dependency theory that the UK’s and Sweden’s decisions based on their expectations concerning development of the EU flower has made their respective eco-labelling of houses to have different organisational structure. The Code as a sector-specific label has the advantage, compared to the Swan, of being able to change its structure depending on the needs of pressure in the network of government, business and consumers.  The Code has several criteria concerning sustainable living besides criteria concerning environmental construction of the house and can therefore be considered as part of the sustainable development discourse.</p>