Carbon Footprint Labels ....... are paper chemical producers participating?

There has been a number of initiatives to put labels on products which indicate their environmental impact. The Nordic Swan, Euro flower, the Carbon Trust's Carbon Reduction Label, etc all indicate that a product has met certain environmental requirements or commitments. The labels become recognised by consumers and are helpful in 'green' marketing initiatives.

There is now an increasing demand from consumers to have a label which more closely relates to the product's carbon footprint - the amount of CO₂ and other greenhouse gases (eg methane and nitrous oxide) emitted as part of a product's manufacture, distribution, use and disposal.

For companies marketing directly to consumers it is not a question of if they will use carbon footprint labels but when. Consumers will be making more informed choices when purchasing goods and the carbon footprint label will be there to help them.

Tissue and towel producers followed by other paper product producers will start to use these labels. Where does this leave the paper chemical supplier? There certainly does not appear to be much visible activity at the moment with most of those paper chemical companies I contacted implying that they will wait to see what happens. However, this is a great opportunity to promote 'green' products and to commit to reducing carbon footprints. In time, the papermakers will require chemical suppliers to know and provide figures for the carbon footprints of their products.

If you are interested in the initiative in the UK, it is worth looking at the web site for the Carbon Trust.

Carbon footprint
global warming
climate change