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The Importance Of Ecolabels in Sustainable Production and Consumption:
Turkish Environmental Labelling System
Introduction

In recent years, economic growth and population growth have triggered an
increase in consumption at the global level, which has caused great damage
to the natural environment, especially to resources. Due to the growing
adverse effects of global production and consumption, reducing natural
resource utilization and other environmental impacts throughout the product
life cycle has become a matter of great importance. It has become necessary
to develop a system that informs consumers about the impact of the products
they use on the natural environment throughout their entire life cycle, and at
the same time can give manufacturers the opportunity to inform consumers
about the advantages of their products. At this point; “environmental-label”
or “eco-label” systems, which are considered as a strategic communication
tool to indicate environment-friendly products, have started to be used (EPA,
2022). It has become possible for product packages or e-catalogues to bear
such labels that meet the specific environmental performance criteria and
therefore help to identify the products that are accepted as “environmentally
preferable” quickly and easily by means of “environmental-label” or “eco-
label” systems. The use of these labels has allowed accurate and scientific
information flow for the manufacturers to produce products or services with
less environmental impact and for the consumers to use environment-friendly
products/services. Such systems applied all over the world on a voluntary basis
mainly aim to direct consumers’ preferences and allow products and services,
which have been proven to be preferable in terms of their environmental
impact, to have environmental-label or certifications in similar names.
Eco-label systems are managed by governmental institutions, non-profit
environmental voluntary organizations or private sector organizations. Some
eco-labels focus on a single phase of the life-cycle (e.g. utilisation phase) or a
single environmental impact (e.g. flue gas emissions) of a product or service,
while others consider the entire life-cycle of a product or service (raw material
supply, production, use, maintenance, disposal). There are also other eco-label
applications that include various environmental issues (energy use, water use,
chemical use, recycling, etc.) at the same time (EU, 2020, EPA, 2022). Besides,
advanced environmental labels or eco-label systems should take into account
the whole life-cycle of a product or service as well as their possible environmental
impacts during their entire life-cycle in accordance with sustainable production
and consumption goals. For this purpose, it is required to conduct a life-cycle
assessment (LCA) in which a “cradle-to-grave” approach is applied.
Environmental-label applications for environment-friendly production first
appeared in the 1970s; the first comprehensive environment-label program
was launched by Germany in 1977; the products with environmental-label

Year 2 / Issue 3 / January 2023 67