18 September 2006Martin Hickman, Consumer Affairs Correspondent
Shoppers will be able to take account of climate when deciding what to buy with the launch of a new mark. Manufacturers who go "carbon neutral" can apply for their labels to feature the Penguin Approved logo, which carries the assurance: "No Global Warming".
Creators of the scheme hope it will emulate the success of the Fairtrade mark for labour standards which now endorses 1,500 products with sales of £195m. Penguin Approved has been devised by Belu, the not-for-profit company that launched Britain's first biodegradeable bottle for its mineral water this summer. More than one million of the corn polymer "bio bottles" have been sold and the water will be the first product to carry the new logo.
Reed Paget, Belu's managing director, is founding a charity to accredit other goods and products and said he had been in talks with two companies, including one in the FTSE 100.
To get approval, producers will have to measure the emissions of greenhouse gases caused by their goods, reduce those emissions over time and offset the remaining under the "Gold Standard" scheme run by the World Wildlife Fund.
Offsetting negates the release of greenhouse gases by preventing, or removing from the atmosphere, the same amount elsewhere, for example through investment in renewable energy. Goods may then be described as carbon neutral.
http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/article1603870.ece
