IGPN - International Green Purchasing Network

August 17, 2026

Incorporating Climate, Biodiversity, And Pollution Criteria Into Ecolabels And Sustainable Certification Schemes

Ecolabels and sustainable certification schemes are powerful instruments for advancing global sustainability commitments. By setting robust sustainability performance criteria across value chains, they incentivize best practices, improve transparency, and can expand market access for more sustainable products and services. For consumers, ecolabels and sustainable certification schemes are key enablers to support more sustainable consumption.

Yet, despite their potential, these tools face challenges in developing robust criteria for rapidly evolving sustainability priorities, such as biodiversity protection, climate mitigation, and pollution reduction. These areas are inherently complex, context-specific, and still evolving in terms of metrics and data availability. As a result, translating these “trend” topics into measurable and verifiable criteria remains difficult.

This document aims to support ecolabels and sustainability certification schemes in identifying and considering relevant aspects related to climate, biodiversity, and pollution in the development of criteria for products and services across four high-impact sectors: building and construction, food, textiles, and electronics/ICT. The guidance promotes a lifecycle and holistic approach, highlighting priority areas—referred to as “hotspots”—within each value chain.

The intended audience of these guidelines includes ecolabels and other sustainable certification schemes, as well as stakeholders seeking to integrate environmental criteria for specific products, such as sustainable public procurement programs and initiatives aimed at enhancing transparency and facilitating access to consumer sustainability information in product supply chains, including Digital Product Information Systems.

This guidance was compiled under the Consumer Information Programme of the One Planet Network and the EcoAdvance project, jointly implemented by the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the Öko-Institute. It is funded by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMUKN) through the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The project promotes synergies between ecolabelling and public procurement, fostering more sustainable production and consumption practices and contributing to environmental conservation, biodiversity protection, and climate change mitigation.

More details at UNEP One Planet Network knowledge center.

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