On the 30th of March, the European Commission will present a legislative proposal including rules on labelling the environmental impact of a product. The Commission is looking into using the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) method, specifically the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF). The big question for this legislative proposal is whether the European Commission will make the assessment and labelling of the environmental impact of products (with LCA's) mandatory or voluntary. The coalition is asking for it to be mandatory.
A coalition of large and small consumer electronics companies sent the letter to the European Commission today, urging them to make a unified product lifecycle methodology mandatory.
On Monday, the 21st of March, the Dutch political party GroenLinks called on the European Parliament for mandatory impact assessments and environmental labels. They cited the One Green Label Digital Coalition as an example of how things should and can be done differently.
Rogier Volmer, CEO Trust International: “We wrote a letter and asked other front runners in sustainable consumer electronics, to join this coalition and sign the letter on: https://onegreenlabeldigital.eu/”.
This letter already gained over twenty signatories in its first week, and companies can still join.
Volmer: “We believe that mandatory labelling of the environmental impact is perfectly possible and necessary:
- To make the digital transition a sustainable one
- To enable consumers and businesses to make informed sustainable choices in a way that is verifiable, comparable, and trusted
- To create a level playing field for businesses aiming to become sustainable.”
Sustainability at Trust
Volmer: “Business as usual is no longer an option. It’s our responsibility and ambition to sustainably design products, run operations and offer consumers smart, affordable and sustainable choices. This is not something that can be achieved overnight. It’s a continuous effort and we’re engaging and collaborating with partners and suppliers to make these clever changes in our industry, production, operations and product range.”