As more companies and consumers seek to reduce and report on their environmental footprint, vendors are responding with claims of environmentally sustainable products. Assessing the environmental sustainability of a product is complex and claims are difficult to ascertain without knowing the underlying assumptions and standards upon which they are made. This guide explains international standards for product environmental labels and declarations that help with product assessments. We then discuss how to read a product’s environmental declaration document that helps quantify its sustainability performance. Finally, we provide guidance for how to accurately assess the environmental sustainability of similar products, providing confidence that your buying decisions are in fact reducing your organisation’s environmental footprint.

Company leaders, sustainability departments, and procurement departments are striving to improve and report on the environmental sustainability of their businesses. The products and services a company buys play an important role in the company’s environmental sustainability goals in terms of its Scope 1, 2, and 3 CO2e emissions. Consequently, manufacturers are responding with claims of environmentally sustainable products. Assessing the environmental sustainability of a product is complex and claims are difficult to ascertain without knowing the underlying assumptions and standards upon which they’re made. This has led to questionable advertisements and claims of “green” products known as “greenwashing”, as illustrated further in Figure 1. Unfortunately, this practice can undermine a decision-maker’s confidence that the product they’re buying is, in fact, lowering their environmental footprint (see end notes 1 to 4). While there are other environmental impacts like water use and contribution to mineral resources depletion, this guide focuses mainly on carbon emissions as a means of assessing a product’s environmental sustainability. Different types of products are assessed differently in this regard, therefore, this guide relates specifically to electrical and electronic equipment (EEE) and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) products.

Also in this guide, we describe international standards for product environmental labels and declarations that help with product assessments. We then explain how to read a product’s environmental declaration document that helps quantify its sustainability performance. Finally, we provide guidance on accurately assessing the environmental sustainability of similar products, giving you confidence that your buying decisions are truly reducing your organisation’s environmental footprint.

Product manufacturers have a significant impact and influence on a product’s environmental footprint. There are different ways a manufacturer can improve their product’s environmental footprint throughout the product lifecycle, including end-of-life. For example, a manufacturer could purchase renewable energy to run its factories, design products to use less plastic and metal, use smaller and more efficient components like wide-bandgap semiconductors, produce packaging from recycled materials, offer take-back programmes for end-of-life products, and many other practices. The question becomes: how does someone assess and validate that one product is more environmentally sustainable than another? The answer lies in environmental labels and declarations and their underlying globally recognised standards.

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) is one of the most recognised standards bodies in the world. In the manufacturing industry, it's well known for its ISO 9000 quality management standards. Similarly, in the environmental community, it's known for its ISO 14000 environmental standards. These standards provide the basis for understanding the environmental sustainability labels a manufacturer applies to its products. In this paper, we describe three pertinent labels: