New Products Added to Carbon Label Scheme

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The Carbon Trust announced today that a further nine brands will add carbon labels to at least one product. Walkers, Boots and Innocent added labels to one of their products in March 2007, which I commented on in July and suggested that it would be encouraging to see more companies doing the same. The nine new brands to sign up to the scheme are;

• Coca-Cola
  One still and one sparkling drink
• Cadbury's Schwepps
  Dairy Milk chocolate bar
• Kimberly-Clark
  Andrex toilet tissure and Huggies nappies
  
• Aggregate Industries
  Hard Landscaping Products (paving stones etc)
• The Co-operative Group
  200g and 400g punnet of strawberries
• Halifax
  Halifax Web Saver account
• Marshalls
  Hard landscaping products (paving stones etc)
• Muller Dairy (UK) Limited
  One type of yoghurt
  
• Scottish & Newcastle
  Fosters lager and Bulmers cider

I am encouraged to see the varying brands and products that will be added to the scheme and this will further assist consumers in buying decisions. It is also interesting to see that for the first time two competing brands in the same industry are working to label their products, and how each vary will be a talking point for the future.

"It is encouraging that so many top companies were "stepping up to the plate" on the issue of climate change. The take-up from business of the Carbon Trust's scheme shows that there's real appetite and willingness to firstly understand, and secondly to reduce the impact that their products have on our planet."
Joan Ruddock, Climate Change Minister

Each company that signs up to the scheme must commit for a minimum of two years to reduce their carbon footprint. Following the Carbon Trust guidelines each company is given a "reduce or lose" clause whereby, if they don't reduce their emissions within this time the label usage will be revoked.

"The unprecedented level of interest we have had in this initiative makes me confident that by working with manufacturers and producers to reduce indirect carbon emissions, we can move the UK another step closer to a low carbon economy"
Tom Delay, Chief Executive, Carbon Trust

The expansion of the carbon label is another step towards reducing the UK annual carbon emissions of 648m tonnes, as each new company signs up to the scheme and labels their products it offers consumers a new choice, and the commitment of the brand they support that they are actively working to reduce the impact of their product on the environment. It makes financial sense that each brand will be commited to the reduction, least not the red faces should they not.