Advertising Carbon’s Impact

June 25th, 2008 at 09:32am Doug Burton

Next year, Sapporo, a Japanese beer company, will start labeling its beer bottles with the amount of carbon emissions associated with production and disposal. Japan’s is also working on standardizing how carbon can be measured and labeled on consumer products.

In the UK, the Carbon Trust, a government-funded independent company, is developing a similar scheme, set to launch in the coming months. According to their site, companies like Coors and Coca-Cola will add the carbon label.

Will this added transparency provide a competitive advantage? Are these figures meaningful to the consumer? And will people really track their carbon impact? We shall soon see.

According to the Carbon Trust’s research, reported in an Independent article, 66 percent of UK consumers want to know how much carbon is associated with their consumer goods. The UK labeling program will have a one year trial period, so we will hopefully find out how accurate that statistic is.

Entry Filed under: Ad industry news, Political, Non-traditional advertising