Together for Carbon Labelling

The initiative ‘Together for Carbon Labelling’ (TCL) has set itself the goal of achieving more transparency on greenhouse gas emissions from food. To this end, companies in the sector have joined forces to find out whether and how this could be indicated on the product. Dr Ulrike Eberle advises the initiative as a life cycle assessment and labelling expert in the food sector.

Since mid-2022, various meetings have taken place within the framework of the initiative, with experts, but also among the companies, in order to discuss the different perspectives and demands. corsus advised TCL on the methodology of a climate label: What should the calculation of greenhouse gas emissions be based on? What standards already exist? What data basis is needed? Should the calculation be based on general average data or on specific data? Which databases are needed in each case? What would be a meaningful unit to base the calculations on?

Another goal of the initiative is to communicate the “importance of product-related CO₂ emissions to the public, politicians, consumers and companies”. To this end, an event was held on July 6th 2023 in the Paul-Löbe-Haus, where the initiative presented its demands to members of the Bundestag and discussed them with them. In addition to the goals and demands of the initiative, the discussion was based on an expert presentation by Dr. Ulrike Eberle on “Food labels: calculation method and data basis” and from Dr Anke Zühlsdorf on requirements from a consumer perspective and findings from consumer research.