Empowering consumers' choice: A new eco-label revealing environmental impact of products and services

In English The provision of environmental information is crucial in the effort to reach sustainability. In the last decades, it has been acknowledged that the promotion of sustainable consumption lifestyles cannot be achieved without providing individual consumers with environmental information and education. However, communicating complex environmental information to non-experts is never an easy task. The lack of comprehensible and accessible environmental communication available for individual consumers have often been observed and criticized. How can environmental information on products and services be modified and improved to ease individual consumers understanding? These questions have been explored throughout this thesis.

This thesis proposes the exploration of a rating system of the environmental impact of products and services. Under the Eco-rating project, the creation of a novel environmental information system has been developed. This system should enable individual consumers to compare the environmental profile of products and services and therefore make informed choices.

Under the Eco-rating project, the focus has been put on the visual representation of environmental information. How can environmental information be visually represented to individual consumers? How can this visual representation allow comparison between the environmental profiles of various products and services and be comprehensible at the same time? The goal of this thesis was to explore and develop a new way to visually communicate environmental information to individual consumers. Through a survey and individual interviews, the key elements to produce a comprehensible and accessible environmental information system have been determined. Furthermore, a concept of a visual representation of environmental information is proposed according to the feedback and insights collated during the user-tests.