§ Baroness Miller of Chilthorne Domerasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, since the energy consumption labelling of white goods, they have introduced any other mechanisms to ensure that consumers can easily identify those products which cause the least environmental damage. [HL4796]
§ Lord WhittyThe Government support a wide range of approaches to help consumers to identify products which deliver better environmental performance. Taking the example of white goods, the development of the mandatory EU energy label has advanced considerably since the first cold products were labelled in the mid-1990s, and that labelling regime is now an important driver for product improvement and consumer choice. Other good labelling regimes that apply to these products, on a voluntary basis, are the EU ecolabel and the Energy Saving Trust's "Energy Efficiency Recommended". The Government promote awareness of reliable information schemes through the Defra website, an electronic newsletter "Pitching Green", and a pocket-sized "Shopper's Guide to Green Labels". They also offer a "Directory of Green Labels" as a reference guide to existing and forthcoming labelling initiatives. At a more detailed level, information about green product standards and benchmarks is available on the market transformation programme website (www.mtprog.com), along with searchable databases showing the relative performance of different products for some categories of goods.