The European Commission has unveiled its Green Consumption Pledge, an EU-wide initiative inviting people, communities and organisations to participate in climate action and build a greener Europe.
It is based on a set of five core pledges. To join it, companies must commit to ambitious actions to improve their environmental impact and to help consumers make more sustainable purchases. Colruyt Group, Decathlon, LEGO Group, L'Oréal and Renewd are the first pioneering enterprises to participate in the Pledge.
New Consumer Agenda
Commissioner for Justice, Didier Reynders, said: “Empowering consumers to make green choices – that is what we set out to do last autumn, when we published the New Consumer Agenda.
"For informed choices, consumers need more transparency on the carbon footprint and sustainability of products. This is what today's initiative is about. I therefore warmly welcome the five companies to the Green Pledge and I applaud them on their commitment to go beyond what is required by law. I look forward to working with many more companies, so we can boost further sustainable consumption in the EU”.
The Green Consumption Pledge is based on a set of five core pledges. To join it, companies commit to ambitious actions to improve their environmental impact and to help consumers make more sustainable purchases.
They have to take concrete measures in at least three of the five pledge areas and they need to prove their progress with data that they then make public. Each pledging company will work with the commission in complete transparency to ensure that the progress is reliable and verifiable. The five core pledge areas are the following:
- Calculate the carbon footprint of the company, including its supply chain, using the calculation methodology or environmental management scheme developed by the Commission, and establish proper due diligence processes towards achieving footprint reductions in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement.
- Calculate the carbon footprint of selected flagship products of the company, using the methodology developed by the Commission, and to achieve certain footprint reductions for the selected products and disclose the progress to the general public.
- Increase the sale of sustainable products or services within the total sales of the company or its selected business part.
- Commit part of the corporate public relations expenditure to the promotion of sustainable practices in line the Commission's implementation of the European Green Deal policies and actions.
- Ensure information provided to consumers in relation to the company and product carbon footprints is easy to access, accurate and clear, and maintain this information up-to-date following any reductions or increases of the footprints.
The Green Consumption Pledge initiative focuses on non-food products and it is complementary to the Code of Conduct that has been launched as part of the Farm to Fork strategy.
The Code of Conduct will bring together stakeholders from the food system to make commitments for responsible business and marketing practices.
Next steps
Any company from the non-food sectors as well as companies in the retail sector selling both food and non-food products interested in joining the Green Pledge can contact the European Commission before the end of March 2021.
This initial pilot phase of the Green Consumption Pledge will be completed by January 2022. Before next steps will be taken, an evaluation of the functioning of the Pledge will be conducted in consultation with the participating companies, relevant consumer organisations and other stakeholders.