Product information on freight emissions for consumers : changing the market towards sustainability

Abstract

This chapter assesses the visibility of the environmental role and effect of freight transport in (global) supply chains and from this point of view questions whether the consumers in fact can make sustainable choices based on information available to them. As opposed to being integrated, the EU’s approach to transport, overall, is fragmented. The same can be said about the Commission’s approach to ‘closing the loop’ with circular economy as well as to carbon emissions in general. However, one key prong of the circular economy package is where all these fragmented strategies should meet: the objective to help consumers choose sustainable products and services. To reach this goal, consumer information on the environmental impact of products sold on the EU internal market should ideally include also transport-related emissions within the value chains – both global as well as local ones – in which they are made. This chapter argues that such consumer information is currently missing and consumers cannot make an overall evaluation of the sustainability of products they purchase. The assessment starts with a practical example from the field of apparel manufacturing and retail, which is followed by general review of the existing indirectly or directly related EU law and how it fails to generate information-fuelled consumer behaviour resulting in market-led change. This leads to the question: what could be the role of law in incentivizing all related companies to support the EU approach – as advocated by the Commission – via more sustainable choices by consumers to rise to the challenge of planetary boundaries and the goal of circular economy, including harnessing the (global) effects of freight-transport?