Maria Teresa Clasadonte

Guidelines for Environmental Labels in the Agri-Food SMEs

In agri-food sector there has been the springing up of voluntary environmental labelling systems used as instruments for environmental communication and useful to obtain a commercial feed-back of eco sustainable management. The result is a varied survey and it becomes extremely difficult and complex for the operators to choose the most effective label which explains the values of their environmental involvement and the application of the operating modes of the chosen labelling system. The aim of this chapter is to draw up some guidelines which take into account the peculiarities of the soil, the specific quality of the products, the characteristics of the supply chain and of the company operative context and the final reference markets; by doing so, these guidelines provide the firms with the right criteria whereby they can choose the most adequate environmental label for their agricultural and food products thus helping them to enhance their communication strategies and their visibility on the market. These guidelines will assist the firms which want to apply an environmental label to their own outputs, choosing a communication system close to their realities through the evaluation of objective, comparable and believable information.

Environmental Labels and Declarations in the Agri-Food Sector

In these last years, the labels and environmental communications have received a great deal of attention in the international scene in order to implement a policy which can encourage producers to improve the environmental performance of their products thus stimulating consumers to give up their habit of making purchases. These labels/declarations encourage the supply and the demand of those products and services able to cause lower damage to the environment stimulating a process of continuous environmental improvement guided by the market. Given the presence of different national systems of environmental labelling and in order to bring into line the methodologies to be adopted, the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has elaborated and regulated three types of labels/environmental declarations: Type I, II and III; there is another category which has not been regulated by the ISOs and which has been defined as “environmental labels of type IV”. In this chapter, there is a critical review of the most significant literature about environmental labels, referring in particular to food products; the aim is to investigate the role that environmental labels have played in the behaviour of consumers and of producers.

Life cycle assessment applied to the sector of microelectronic devices

This work is about the application of LCA to the ends of the environmental assessment of pure-silicon wafers production. The input-data quantification is realized studying two microelectronic devices and presenting schematically tables and graphs, to be easily interpreted. This will allow help the reader to individuate, clearly and immediately, the materials flows and the relationships among the different steps of the production process. The material flows, in terms of raw materials use and energy consumption, were studied using the data provided by a firm involved in the microelectronic device production field. The two devices environmental analysis was developed considering potential effects such as Acidification, Eutrophication, Ozone reduction, Global warming, Ozone photochemical formation, Human Toxicity.

The Implementation of the Guidelines for Environmental Labels and Declarations in Agri-Food SMEs

In order to test the implementation of the guidelines for environmental labels and declarations in agri-food SMEs, a firm which operates in the pasta chain was chosen as it was considered representative of the Sicilian economic system. After a brief description of the sector and the pilot firm, the path followed by the firm towards the choice of a voluntary environmental labelling system which suited its peculiarities will be reported. Following the iterative procedural steps and making use of decision support instruments, the organisation has given to its distributors and consumers the necessary information for a conscious choice of eco-compatible products and the relevant information connected with the phases of the productive process, the product itself and the performance in terms of environmental impact. The experience resulting from the application of the guidelines proposed to the pilot firm has shown how it is possible to choose the voluntary communication system, closer to the business reality, by starting from the analysis of the company activities and of the expectations of the management, the stakeholders and their environmental awareness.