making sense of symbols pt. 2
what’s in it for you?
• Find out when and where ecolabels originated
• Discover the recurring role of the United Nations
• Deepen your understanding of the certification process6-8 minute read
Welcome back to the middle of this tantalizing triptych, a three part series delving deep into understanding ecologos, their defining characteristics, history, and impact. If you missed the first part discussing the definitions, steps of certification and the fall of an icon, you can read it here.
When researching this article, we continued to find a pattern of the United Nations (UN) appearing around every corner. We thought it would be interesting to include these historical details as it is not something we have seen discussed widely. The following is not an exhaustive history, and the author has no affiliation with the United Nations.
Fig 1. Click to enlarge. Visual representation of simplified history with creation of ecologo programs. This is not an exhaustive list. If you think a logo should be added, please let us know by comment or email.
a time crunch.
Now to squish world history into a few sentences: World War 2 ended, the United Nations was formed, and within two years the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) was also formed in part due to connections with the UN. After the war there were 10-15 years of reconstruction, which of course varied in scope between countries. One major constant here is the backdrop of the Cold War which continued from roughly 1945-1985, then began to seriously thaw before officially ending in 1991.
After reconstruction in the Western World, there was a period of prosperity in the 1950s, and then a period of self-reflection and civil rights in the 1960s. In 1969, the Santa Barbara Oil Spill occurred, which was a shocking ecological disaster, and a few months later Earth Day was proposed at a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) conference. The following year, the first Earth Day was held and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was formed. In 1972, the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) was established, and in 1978 the first ecologo, known as the Blauer Engel (Blue Angel) program, was created in West Germany, utilizing UNEP’s logo as their mark [3]. It is here we pause to give credit to all of the environmental activists around the world up to this point. If you look at this timeline, UNEP was created only after significant world events and environmental activism.
In 1985 Mikhail Gorbachev was elected leader of the Soviet Union, and things began to unravel for the USSR, paving the way for closer collaboration of nations on major issues like the environment. In 1987 the Brundtland Report (sponsored by the UN), did a lot to synthesize an environmentally conscious blueprint for future generations. This landmark report commissioned by the United Nations was drafted by the first female Prime Minister of Norway, Gro Harlem Brundtland, and includes definitions and concepts for key ideas of future sustainable development. It broadly identifies that environmental concerns began as a response to rapid growth after the Second World War. While the Brundtland Report does not call for ecologo programs specifically, it does mention energy labeling programs which were successful and suggests that they be “quickly and widely extended.” It also clearly and repeatedly asks for a united effort of economic and environmental development. As ecolabels are applied to products of for-profit entities, the ecologo can be seen as the smallest realization of this ideal [1].
From 1988 onward there was an explosion of ecolabels aided by the success of the Blue Angel program, the Brundtland Report, and the 1992 UN Earth Summit. The 1992 UN Earth Summit was a realignment and reconnection for the world on environmental issues after the fall of the Soviet Union.
the first ecologo.
As mentioned previously, use of the first ecologo began officially in 1978 in West Germany. The Blue Angel was developed by the Interior Minister of the West German government and is still alive to this day. Similar to all of the logos that followed, it relies on different sets of criteria created by an advisory board. Each category of product has different guidelines. If a company wants to obtain the mark they have to submit tests from 3rd-party agencies and pay an application fee. The fee structure is clearly detailed on their website, and scales up to 10,500€ plus valued added tax [2].
Fig 2. Click to enlarge. How a product is certified by the Blue Angel Program. This is only possible due to their detailed efforts of transparency on their website.
The concept of the Blue Angel program spread across the world. Interestingly, Japan’s Eco Mark was developed in 1989 and specifically references Germany’s Blue Angel as an inspiration [4] . Researchers found that as of May 2020, 458 ecolabels existed across 199 countries [8].
While it's hard to grasp over four hundred organizations all with their own voluntary standards, what is telling is that the eco-logo ecosystem now requires watchdogs for its watchdogs. More specifically, the Global Ecolabelling Network (GEN) is an organization which exists to rank and rate certifying bodies which issue ecolabels [5]. Founded in 1994, it took about 10 years for GEN to develop a review scheme, and after about another 10 years they began working with the International Organization for Standardization to further refine their criteria.
Do you know the history of the ecologos you reference? They may have an interesting story just waiting to be discovered. If you find something interesting, please share it with us by comment or email.
organizing the organizations.
The ISO saliently uses the language “environmentally preferable” to describe the function ecolabels provide to consumers. Their first standards were written in 1999 and were last updated in 2018 to meet changing consumer and market demands [7]. These requirements are reviewed every 5 years, and are currently under review once more in 2023. Additionally, it should be no surprise that these requirements meet some of the 2015 UN sustainable development goals.
Below is a summarization of the International Organization for Standardization from the UN website [9], as the full official guidelines are behind a 92 Swiss Franc paywall. For transparency's sake, we believe this is something they should allow anyone to view for free; however, they may have legitimate justification of which we are not aware.
Fig 3. Click to enlarge. Summary of the 2018 International Organization for Standardization ISO14024:2018 classifications for an ecolabel.
You will notice that the ISO standards may differ from what we discussed in the previous article. For example, Rainforest Alliance and USDA Organic would be classified not as an ISO Type I ecolabel, but as “certification schemes” or “sustainability labeling” (Type I-like). The ISO naming structure hints that they understand that historically what the average person would consider an ecologo would be Type I or Type I-like. In our opinion, the distinction here is not useful for the average person, which is why we did not follow this guideline for this series. To be fair to the ISO, they are working at an organizational level, and are not writing standards for the everyday consumer to read. Regarding ISO standards, the important part for us is that you understand the difference between Type I/Type I-like versus Type II and III. A corporation can put any logo or mark and make any type of environmental claim it wishes. However, the ISO rightfully values these less than ones verified by third parties.
One important closing thought is that the average person’s individual actions are on the very bottom of the environmental activism food chain, and this includes usage of ecologos. It is here that we should remind ourselves of British Petroleum's “carbon footprint” campaign from 2004 which was an attempt to shame average consumers into believing they were the problem rather than governments or corporations [6]. Therefore, if we appropriately identify that the individual consumer has a much lower impact compared to companies and nations, we need to understand soberly that the prioritization of purchasing ecolabel products will also be only marginally beneficial. However, an ecologo’s impact is more complex than simply its presence on products. In the following article we will look at who typical ecologo consumers are, review the pride and pitfalls of these programs, while providing a final analysis and suggestions for the future.
our two cents:
Ecologos arose from a complex era of shifting environmental consciousness. They represent an ideological goal line that we have not yet crossed. While ISO standards may be useful at an organization level, they remain far out of view from the average consumer. A “simple” solution could be to augment what already exists, combining UN, ISO, and GEN resources to produce a campaign to better educate the public on different classifications. This would better empower the average consumer to sort through the gradation of legitimacy in ecologos, and their corporate copycats. -
[1] Are, Federal Office for Spatial Development. “1987: Brundtland Report,” n.d. https://www.are.admin.ch/are/en/home/media/publications/sustainable-development/brundtland-report.html.
[2] Blue Angel the German Ecolabel. “Costs for Applying for the Label.” Blue Angel, n.d. https://www.blauer-engel.de/en/certification/costs-applying-label.
[3] Blue Angel The German Ecolabel. “Ecolabel with History.” Blue Angel, n.d. https://www.blauer-engel.de/en/blue-angel/our-label-environment/ecolabel-history.
[4] Eco Mark Office Japan Environment Association. “Guidance for the Eco Mark.” Japan Environment Association Ecomark, April 2014. https://www.ecomark.jp/english/pdf/tebiki_E.pdf.
[5] Global Ecolabelling Network. “Global Ecolabelling Network,” March 23, 2023. https://globalecolabelling.net/
[6] Hirji, Zahra. “There’s One Good Way to Think About Your Carbon Footprint.” Bloomberg.Com, August 12, 2022. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-07-23/does-my-carbon-footprint-matter.
[7] ISO. “New Version of ISO 14024 on Ecolabelling Just Published,” March 9, 2018. https://www.iso.org/news/ref2273.html.
[8] Meis-Harris, Julia, Celine Klemm, Stefan Kaufman, Jim Curtis, Kim Borg, and Peter Bragge. “What Is the Role of Eco-Labels for a Circular Economy? A Rapid Review of the Literature.” Journal of Cleaner Production 306 (July 15, 2021): 127134. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.127134.
[9] United Nations Environment Programme. “Eco-Labelling,” n.d. https://www.unep.org/explore-topics/resource-efficiency/what-we-do/responsible-industry/eco-labelling.
