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Mehmet Emin Birpınar, Ülkü Yetişet, et al.,

models and the increase of the number of responsible consumers. Thus,
responsible production and consumption awareness comes up as an important
requirement in the implementation of the circular economy system (Marrucci
et al., 2019, Castro et al., 2022).
There are many useful tools to facilitate the move towards more sustainable
consumption and production patterns and the transition to a more circular
economy within the scope of sustainable consumption and production.
Although there is a possibility that new tools will emerge in the future that
will accurately measure the requirements of circularity and promote the
circular economy, eco-labeling applications within the scope of sustainable
consumption and production are the main ones among these tools (Marrucci
et al., 2019). Encouraging the product and service producers to offer more
sustainable products and services through eco-labeling applications and
directing consumers to make more sustainable purchasing decisions are seen
as of critical importance for the transition to a circular economy. In this context,
the European Commission considers the EU Eco-label system to be one of the
main tools for supporting an integrated production/ consumption approach
in the EU and for further sustainable development. With this tool, it is aimed
to promote a greener consumption, to ensure that products and services
meet high environmental standards throughout their life cycle. Therefore, the
EU Eco-label is defined as an environmental excellence label; it is included
as a component of the European Commission’s Sustainable Production and
Consumption Action Plan, and the EU Eco-label is referred in the Circular
Economy Action Plan. The use of this component for circular economy policy
goals will be possible by addressing the criteria that will have a positive impact
on circular economy outputs or that will be used in an integrated manner
with the circular economy in the eco-label criteria defined for products and
services (Yokessa and Marette, 2019; Meis-Harris et al., 2021).
Among the tools and instruments developed by the European Commission
for facilitating a more circular economy, there are systems such as sustainability
performance of buildings (Level(s)), environmental technology verification (EU
ETV), product environmental footprint and organisation environmental footprint
(PEF-OEF) besides the EU Eco-label (EU ECOLABEL) where products or services
with a reduced environmental impact are labeled on a voluntary basis.

3. Main International Eco-Label Systems and Their Current Status

3.1. EU Eco-Label System
The voluntary-based label system “EU Ecolabel”, which is being
implemented by the European Union, was established in 1992 and has
become widely used. To obtain the EU Ecolabel, products and services

72 Journal of Environment, Urbanization and Climate