[MUSIC] Hello, my name is Åke Thidell and I'm going to talk about what environmentally conscious consumers can do to make more sustainable choices. There is a multitude of measures to be taken when striving for a more environmentally conscious lifestyle. Like using long lasting products, choosing bike, public transportation or walking instead of using the car. And all in all just reducing your general consumption levels. But here, I will focus on our consumption of products we buy in the shop and services we use including goods, electricity and food. We can choose products that are better for the environments, but it's often difficult for the consumer to know which product is the more sustainable alternative. As consumers we need information, and there is in fact a lot of environmental information the conscious consumer can use as guidance. And here I'll give you some examples. There are energy labels for energy consuming products like computers, washing machines, heat pumps, and light bulbs. These energy labels explain how energy efficient they are to use. We have producers' self-declared environmental claims that point out a single aspects of the product that the producer claims is an important environmental feature, such as that the product is recyclable, or produced from recycled material. Consumers then have the right to ask the producers for justification for this claim. Why and to what extent is the product more sustainable than others on the market? So when you see producers making these claims, take the opportunity and ask them about it. You have probably also heard of organic food labels. which guarantee environmentally sound farming practices without artificial fertilizers or use of pesticides. And there are other kinds of food labels. For instance, the Marine Stewardship Council that shows that fish is caught without jeopardizing endangered species. All of these types of product information that I just mentioned tell the consumers about certain environmental aspects. But if we really want to analyze the environmental performance of a product and compare it with others, we need to consider the life cycle of the product. That is to analyse all phases the product go through from 'cradle to grave', and what environmental impacts arise in each of those steps. This would include the extraction and refinement of raw materials, production processes of components and assembling of different components to final products. After that comes the use phase where we, the consumers, use the product. And the final step is the disposal of the product for recycling or as waste. Environmental labeling or ecolabeling is a product label that considers the environmental performance of the life cycles of products and services, analyzing the environmental impacts that occur in the different life cycle phases and how they relate to each other. Ecolabeling is 'positive', that means it points out the best products in a defined product group, like for instance, laundry detergents for household use. Also it's voluntary that means that the producers decide if they want to use the ecolabel, which they can do, if their products are among the best. Third, ecolabeling is run by an independent body, meaning a third party. This way, it's not dependent on producers, authorities, consumers groups or any other actors when defining what requirements the best products must meet. For example, with the laundry detergent, the ecolabel should require that the detergent contains less harmful chemicals released to the waste water when we use it in the user face. It should also look at how efficient the detergent is at low temperatures to reduce the energy to heat the wash water also in the userface. So, the environmental properties and function of the detergents introduced in the production are, in other words, key for reducing the environmental impacts from a life cycle perspective. Such requirements are collected in criteria documents for each product group and should be readily available online from the ecolabeling system. So that you can see how they have evaluated each product group and what requirements the best products must meets. Since the 90s, ecolabeling has spread in the Nordic countries, and Scandinavia is probably the region where you would find most ecolabel products in the stores. On the Nordic market, we have a few ecolabels that are very well recognized among consumers. You can go to the websites to investigate what product groups that can be labeled, which products are ecolabeled, and the criteria documents that show which requirements that equal labeled products and services have to fulfill. You may have experienced that there are too many labels on products today? And yes, there are indeed many different labels, and this is sometimes considered to be confusing for the consumers. But, studies have shown that most consumers have knowledge and make us of just a few them. For instance, the few well recognized labels on the Nordic market, and that these consumers disregard the other labels. And I think this is both a reasonable and rational way to use information, so in real life, the potential confusion caused by the many labels, does seem to be a minor problem. So, if you want to be a conscious consumer, learn about the most respected ecolabels for products, services or organic food in your country, and look for them the next time you go shopping. 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