Environmental labeling – LCA to better understand the impacts of agri-food products
Environmental labeling
What is environmental labeling?
The ADEME (Agency for Ecological Transition) defines environmental labeling as a means to "inform consumers about the environmental impacts of the products or services they consume."
This involves displaying a score representing the environmental impact of the product, enabling easy or immediate comparison of multiple products or services, to make an informed choice at the time of purchase.
Environmental labelling takes the form of a score calculated using life cycle analysis methods. These methods consider greenhouse gas emissions, impacts on biodiversity, water and energy consumption, and other natural resources.
The main idea is to create a simple reference for consumers, similar to the nutri-score (for nutritional intake), so that they can compare their purchases themselves.
This initiative also aims to raise awareness among manufacturers and distributors about the environmental impacts of their products in order to initiate a process and/or promote an eco-design approach towards more sustainable production.
The beginning of the experiments
The environmental labelling project began in France with a pilot phase in 2011.
In 2013, the drafting of a report submitted to Parliament demonstrated a genuine demand from consumers, a potential source of economic competitiveness and environmental performance, to base it on a multicriteria approach across the entire life cycle (LCA), and to develop common methodologies to create a simple reference for comparing products or services.
Following this experiment, the technical framework for environmental labelling was developed (2012-2017 period).
Environmental labelling was tested in several pilot sectors (between 2017 and 2020), including clothing and footwear, digital products, and food products.
Zoom on the food sector
According to ADEME, the food sector accounts for 25% of GHG emissions and 16% of household expenditure in France. It is therefore a significant lever for ecological transition.
Introduced by Article 15 of the AGEC law in 2020, the implementation of environmental labelling on food products was reiterated in Article 2 of the Climate and Resilience law.
In this context, ADEME launched a project for mandatory environmental labelling on food products. It will be implemented in 2024, with a real obligation starting in 2025.
Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) expertise in the service of food environmental labelling
Methodologies and data
In practice, the calculation of environmental impacts of food products therefore incorporates the LCA methodology (Life Cycle Assessment).
In order to create homogeneous, reliable, objective, and simple environmental information for both industries and consumers, calculations are based on existing data from public databases such as (Agribalyse v 3.1) and incorporate the principles of the European EF 3.1 (Environmental Footprint) methodology, while considering its limitations.
Agribalyse is a French public database, created in 2009, specific to the food sector. It provides data on the environmental impact of approximately 200 agricultural productions and 2,500 categories of food products, the most consumed in France.
It also takes into account food products consumed in France but produced abroad and imported, such as coffee for example.
The collaboration between WeLOOP and Karbon
Creation of a B2B tool for the agri-food sector.
The ADEME launched a call for projects between 2020 and 2021 to make environmental labelling accessible.
Karbon, in partnership with WeLOOP, responded to this call for projects to experiment with environmental labelling on consumer food products using their tool.
The tool aims to facilitate "access to environmental data and allows stakeholders in the agri-food sector to measure the environmental impact of their food products."
WeLOOP and Karbon are finalising this LCI experiment on 550 food products, following the most up-to-date environmental labelling methodology as of this date (changes are expected before the beginning of 2024).
It integrates the Agribalyse v 3.1 database and contains the updated environmental labelling calculation methodology. It allows for a comprehensive assessment from raw material to end-of-life, based on the indicators of the EF 3.1 methodology, while taking into account the limitations of this methodology, with the addition of a biodiversity and ecosystem services indicator.
The tool was designed for non-ACV specialists, with an intuitive interface and quick usability, making it easier to understand and share the results.
This partnership between Karbon and WeLOOP highlights companies in the agri-food sector that wish to engage in environmental labelling.