Check-Out Carbon: The role of carbon labeling in delivering a low-carbon shopping basket

This report from Forum for the Future in the United Kingdom explores whether carbon labeling on products is the best way to communicate the climate change impacts of everyday products.

Drawing on interviews and consumer focus groups, the report found that a majority of consumers want more information on the environmental impacts of the products they buy and use. Forum of the Future explores the challenges of carbon labeling and offers advice for retailers exploring the practice.

“Our research highlights the need for context: it is vitial that consumers understand there are bigger opportunities to reduce their carbon footprint, such as not driving to the shops,” the report said. “At the same time, the things they buy and use account for 45 percent of the average consumer’s carbon emissions, so this is not an area that should be neglected.”