“EEKlim – Development and testing of a climate label in Lower Saxony” – Development of the methodological concept

The project “EEKlim – Development and testing of a climate label in Lower Saxony” of the Georg August University of Göttingen aims at developing a climate label for food in Lower Saxony. A climate and environmental label on all food products can create more transparency for consumers, which is the basis for informed purchasing decisions. Within the framework of the project, corsus is working on a subcontract to develop the methodological concept for a suitable data basis and data rules for the label. The focus is on climate impacts, but the proposal also includes other environmental impacts associated with food production.

The environmental information presented in a climate label is based on life cycle assessment data along the life cycle of a food product up to the point of sale. A key feature for a label here is to provide directionally reliable information. For example, animal-based foods in particular have a large climate footprint, but also a large land and biodiversity footprint. For some plant-based foods, on the other hand, the water scarcity footprint is higher than for animal products. In the methodological concept to be developed, suggestions will therefore be made as to which environmental impacts should be included in the label and which rules should apply to the required data from LCA databases and to specific company data. The rules will be discussed with different stakeholders in the process and will also include the results of the Product Environmental Footprint Category Rules (PEFCR), which have been developed and tested in the Environmental Footprinting process at European level.

(Term 01/2023-03/2024)