Environmental Management and Ecolabels for a Climate-Neutral Circular Economy

Dear Colleagues,

In the last few years, climate change and resource consumption have become a main global issue and are among the most challenging communication issues for marketers in the private and public sector. In recent times, the intensification of extreme climatic phenomena, the fires in the Amazon forest, the problem of plastic and resources consumption, and the youth movement of Greta Thunberg have raised unprecedented media attention on the phenomenon of climate change. This has led many citizens, especially young people, to urge governments to find effective and rapid solutions to global warming.

To respond to these increasing concerns, the European Union, in November of 2018, released its strategic long-term vision for a climate neutral economy by 2050 with the communication “A Clean Planet for all - A European strategic long-term vision for a prosperous, modern, competitive and climate neutral economy” (28/11/2018 - COM (2018) 773) (European Commission, 2018). With this communication, the European Union presented its vision for achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 through a socially fair transition in a cost-efficient manner. The European vision for a climate neutral Europe is, however, strongly based also on the achievement of a circular economy as a key enabler to this sustainable transition (Directorate-General for Climate Action -European Commission, 2019).

Additionally, following the current news, one cannot help but notice that citizens are clamoring for substantial changes in the way our economy produces and consumes goods and services. Several scholars have found that consumers are increasingly concerned about their impacts on the environment and on the climate. One way for companies to demonstrate to consumers their commitment to go green and at the same time manage their environmental impacts is adopting voluntary environmental instruments. Indeed, more and more companies are implementing environmental certification programs to reduce their environmental impacts and earn recognition from customers. Environmental certifications help companies to assure customers about their genuine interest in environmental issues and their commitment to the sustainable management of companies’ activities.

These voluntary initiatives can be categorized in two different types: product-oriented and process-oriented. Product-oriented ones refer to eco-labels, which aim to promote products which are less harmful for the environment and to environmental product life cycle assessment. Process-oriented instruments, instead, guide firms in internalizing and orientating their processes toward a reduced environmental impact (Merli et al., 2018). Ecolabels, together with environmental management systems (EMS), have been proven to be the most effective in reducing companies’ negative impact on the environment and to communicate companies’ efforts toward sustainability (Marrucci et al., 2021).

In this sense, the academic literature is struggling to keep up in photographing and analyzing changes in companies’ behavior about these tools and their role in the transition towards a more climate-neutral circular economy. Moreover, the impact of environmental management and labels on consumers awareness and specific purchasing decisions is mixed, and evidence on consumer behavior is often inconclusive.

Through this Special Issue, we aim at collecting studies, both qualitative and quantitative, as well as best practices and experience descriptions which focus on the use of environmental management and ecolabels to achieve a climate-neutral circular economy, considering all its aspects.

Dr. Roberto Merli
Dr. Alessia Acampora
Guest Editors

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• environmental management
• environmental management systems (EMS)
• ecolabels
• ecolabelling
• circular economy
• climate neutrality
• carbon neutrality
• life cycle assessement (LCA)
• EMAS
• ISO14001
• product environmental footprint (PEF)
• carbon footprint (CF)
• green public procurement (GPP)
• sustainability indicators
• environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG)
• cleaner production
• sustainable businesses
• eco-innovation