Eco Labelling

Eko-etiket sistemi, tüketiciler için tasarlanmış olup, daha yeşil ürün ve hizmetleri ayırt edebilmelerine yardımcı olmak amacıyla başlatılmış gönüllülük esasına dayanan bir sertifikalandırma uygulamasıdır. Çevre etiketi (Eko- etiket), gıda, içecek, ilaç ve tıbbi ürünler dışındaki alanlarda herhangi bir hizmet ya da ürün için verilebilmektedir. 1996 yılı itibariyle 6 ürüne verilmiştir. 2018 yılında 2091 adet ürün-hizmete eko-etiket lisansı verilmiş ve her geçen gün gelişen ürün yelpazesiyle lisans sayısı artmaya devam etmektedir. Eko-etiket uygulamasının kullanımda olduğu 35 ürün grubu bulunmakla birlikte, eko-etiket belli kriterler çerçevesinde verilebilmektedir. Bu çalışma ile, eko-etiket kavramı, gelişim süreci, temel felsefesi, faydaları konularını ve bu konuda Türkiye’deki son gelişmeleri incelemek amaçlanmıştır.
The eco-label system is a volunteer-based certification application designed to help consumers distinguish more green products and services. Environmental labeling (Eco-label) can be given for any service or product in areas other than food, beverages, medicines and medicinal products. As of 1996, 6 products were given. In 2018, 2091 product-service eco-label licenses were granted and the number of licenses continued to increase with the product range that developed every day. Although there are 35 product groups in which eco-label application is in use, eco-label can be given under certain criteria. With this study, the concept of eco-label, the development process, the fundamental philosophy, benefits, aimed to examine issues and latest developments in this field in Turkey

The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to explore the concept of consumers’ perception of sustainable wine and second ,to investigate different clusters based on three factors identified (belief about environmental protection, beliefs about sustainable wine certification and attitude towards sustainable-labelled wine) and willingness to pay (WTP). Then, socio-demographic characteristics have been considered to assess whether group’s composition differ considerably

http://www.researchmoz.us/global-label-market-2014-2018-report.html

Global Label market to grow at a CAGR of 4.13 percent over the period 2014-2018. One of the key factors contributing to this market growth is the increasing demand for packaged food and beverages. The Global Label market has also been witnessing the increasing demand from emerging countries. However, the highly fragmented nature of the market could pose a challenge to the growth of this market. Global Label Market 2014-2018, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the APAC region, the Americas, Europe, and the ROW; it also covers the Global Label market landscape and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

Increasingly, consumers are becoming more knowledgeable about the environment and reflecting this knowledge in their decisions to buy green products. While previous research on the topic has generally examined green consumption related to a single product label, numerous questions exist about why consumers choose various green products and services. We address these concerns by examining individuals' actual green consumption as it relates to their trust of various sources to provide them with environmental information, environmental knowledge, and personal affect towards the environment. These relationships are studied for a sample of more than 1,200 UK residents using multiple regression techniques. We show that individuals' total green consumption is related to their trust of various sources to provide them with environmental information, environmental knowledge, and personal affect towards the environment. These findings have important implications to policy-makers and businesses alike as greater efforts are made to encourage more widespread green consumption.

The latest statistics reveal that Australia now has more certified organic agriculture hectares than the rest of the world put together. Organics is a major success story for Australia and the achievement of global majority (51%) is an important organics milestone. Organic agriculture is reported from 181 countries. Australia reported 35,645,038 certified organic hectares and the world total is 69,845,243 hectares. Australia has been the world leader in organics, based on certified organic hectares, since global statistics of organics were first collated and published in 2000. In the two decades since then, global organics has grown at 12% per annum (pa), year on year, while Australian organics has grown at 16% pa. This growth in Australia has ramped up to 22% for the past five years. In Australia this has been achieved without government support and without institutional support. Australia is at no risk of being ‘knocked off the perch’ anytime soon. In second position is Argentina with 3,385,827 hectares, less than 10% of Australia’s tally. Third is China with 3,023,000 hectares, then comes Spain with 2,082,173 ha, then USA with 2,031,318 ha. Of eight states and territories in Australia, all report some organics. The states in the lead are South Australia and Queensland. Of the country’s agricultural land, 8.8% is certified organic, so there is still plenty of room for improvement. Organic agriculture produces premium products that attract a price premium in the market, whether at home or abroad. At the present rate of growth Australia can be expected to shortly join the ‘10% Club’, along with the leaders Liechtenstein (37.9%), Samoa (37.6%), Austria (24.0%), Estonia (20.5%), and ten others. The market for Australian organic produce is mostly driven by the world’s appetite for clean and nutritious food, ultimately that means by discerning consumers with the wherewithal to pay the organic premium. Meanwhile, the world’s consumers are becoming more informed, more discerning, more health conscious, and more wealthy. No one would eat glyphosated food if they had a choice, which is to say, an informed choice. The prospects for global and Australian organics are good.

Quinoa farmers in San Agustín, Bolivia face the dilemma of producing for a growing international market while defending their community interests and resources, meeting their basic household needs, and making a profit. Farmers responded to a changing market in the 1970s by creating committees in defense of quinoa and farmer cooperatives to represent their interests and maximize economic returns. Today farmer cooperatives offer high, stable prices, politically represent farmers, and are major quinoa exporters, but intermediaries continue to play an important role in the local economy. Meanwhile, some farmers rebuff the national cooperatives and intermediaries in favor of a denomination of origin and closer association with local cooperatives. This article, based on 4 months of ethnographic research, explores the reasons for the continued presence of intermediaries on the market landscape and how farmers have worked to create a quinoa economy embedded with fair trade values. Farmers demand stable prices, flexible standards, provision of services, and promises of maintaining the distinctive qualities of San Agustín quinoa. They frame their trades in economic, utility, and solidarity terms to reflect their livelihood strategies, farming capabilities, and personal concepts of fair trade. Meanwhile cooperatives, development initiatives, and intermediaries each argue that their particular buying practices allow farmers to attain household goods, credit, and cash for food and economic security.

Atualmente os ecossistemas marinhos sofrem as consequências das atividades antrópicas e de anos sobreexploração, por isso a gestão da pesca se voltou nas últimas décadas para a exploração sustentável dos recursos pesqueiros, utilizando instrumentos de regulação tradicionais e uma ferramenta focada no consumidor, as rotulagens e certificações ecológicas. O presente estudo teve como objetivo conhecer o gap entre oferta e demanda de pescados certificados. A pesquisa foi realizada no município de Santos, nos meses de maio e junho de 2018, a partir das informações das embalagens dos produtos disponíveis nos supermercados de grande rede e de respostas de consumidores entrevistados no hipermercado Extra, em Santos. Os resultados mostraram que, embora os consumidores estejam interessados em comprar pescados certificados, os supermercados ainda não oferecem muitas opções. Verificou-se um potencial nicho de mercado que poderia fomentar o desenvolvimento sustentável da pesca.

Il saggio, a partire dal riconoscimento della difficile comprensione e valutazione della sostenibilità nel settore edilizio, propone un excursus commentato dei protocolli e delle normative internazionali oltre che dei documenti nazionali in merito alla certificazione della sostenibilità di prodotti, di edificio e di processo.

Green Food is a Chinese eco-certification scheme for food. It certifies both the production process and the outcome. Green Food is produced with a controlled and reduced use of pesticides, together with a testing regime for pesticide residues. There is a contrast between Green Food, which is a certification of both production and outcome, and organic certification, which is a certification of production process alone. Green Food in China dates from 1990. In that year China’s Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) created the Green Food program. Under the control of the MOA, the China Green Food Development Centre (CGFDC) was founded in 1992, to be responsible for national development and management of Green Food. The CGFDC owns the Green Food logo, develops and maintains the Green Food standard, coordinates inspections and monitoring, is responsible for certification, and draws income for certification fees. China’s development of the Green Food concept resolves issues with both chemical and organic agriculture - for the former by offering reduced pesticide use, and for the latter by providing a stepped pathway for conversion from chemical to organic agriculture while simultaneously providing a Green Food price premium. After nearly two decades of development, Green Food is by now well known to Chinese consumers, and is readily available for retail purchase in China.

While prior ecolabel research suggests that consumers’ trust of ecolabel sponsors is associated with their purchase of ecolabeled products, we know little about how third-party certification might relate to consumer purchases when trust varies. Drawing on cognitive theory, and a stratified random sample of more than 1,200 consumers, we assess how third-party certification relates to consumers’ use of ecolabels across different program sponsors. We find that consumers’ trust of government and environmental NGOs to provide credible environmental information encourages consumers’ use of ecolabels sponsored by these entities, and consumers do not differentiate between certified vs. uncertified ecolabels in the presence of trust. By contrast, consumers’ distrust of private business to provide credible environmental information discourages their use of business association sponsored ecolabels. However, these ecolabels may be able to overcome consumer distrust if their sponsors certify the ecolabels using third-party auditors. These findings are important to sponsors who wish develop ecolabels that are more credible to consumers and thus encourage more widespread ecolabel use.

This paper investigates the factors associated with the (non)adoption of eco-certification among the nature-based tourism companies in the Scandinavian region. Previous research suggested that the popularity of tourism eco-certification schemes remained limited in the region due to socio-cultural, historical and other specifics. We revisit this query a decade later with the support of nation-wide data from two Scandinavian countries – Norway and Sweden. The quantitative results suggest that such factors as motivations for operating a nature-based tourism business, beliefs about eco-certification effects, economic and demographic characteristics, are associated with the eco-certification adoption. Qualitative insights shed more light on the existing barriers for this sustainability approach in the region. The results suggest that companies with strong beliefs in the positive context (i.e. beliefs that eco-certification is capable to generate higher income, more customers and provide marketing advantage), lifestyle and sustainability-oriented business goals together with favorable organizational context (larger size, higher income and having a female leader) are more likely to invest in an eco-certification scheme.

Purpose – This paper aims to explore the potential for the labelling of the water footprint of products in an Australian context. It considers theoretical contribution and technical challenges of water labelling and in particular how non-fungible water extractions might be evaluated and communicated. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines the theoretical contribution of labels drawing on the sustainability typology articulated by Hopwood et al. and more recent claims that access to product-level environmental information may constitute a consumer right. The paper also explores labelling empirically via an extensive literature review and ten interviews with water regulators and commercial water users. Findings – Water footprint reporting could make a significant contribution to public water literacy. Significant technical hurdles remain, however, in appropriately distinguishing differing impacts of water extractions as well as in relation to measurement, allocation and information overload. This suggests that labelling of complex products is currently infeasible but existing and emerging solutions to these issues suggest that labelling of simpler products is a realistic possibility. Research limitations/implications – Given the relatively small scope of interviews, the findings of this study might be triangulated with other research methods such as surveys and/or focus groups for the findings to be validated. Additionally, future research might focus on overcoming each of the challenges noted above for a particular product in order to bring water labelling closer to practical reality. Originality/value – Labelling schemes offer improved corporate supply-chain accountability yet have received little attention in the social and environmental accounting literature to date. This paper therefore seeks to make a theoretical and empirical contribution to this emerging field of labelling in the area of water, a key sustainability issue.

In the five decades since Vance Packard published The Waste Makers (1960), planned product obsolescence has developed in many subtle and sophisticated ways. Yet its social and environmental impact remains largely unacknowledged; planned obsolescence continues to be elaborated and to undermine consumer choice, increase costs of owning and using products, accelerating the destruction of useful objects and resulting in higher levels of ecological spoiling. It is a phenomenon widely acknowledged though little discussed.

There are many products out there designed to wear out and break down. Take the humble light bulb. How often does a light bulb blow out, forcing you to replace it?

Think about this as you consider the Centennial Light, a light bulb manufactured by the Shelby Electric Company in the 1890s and continues to function after 113 years. Incredible? - not really. But the Centennial Light was around before the Wright Brothers ever set foot at Kitty Hawk.

But how do you make money on a product that lasts a century? And so light bulbs were artificially capped; in 1924 a cartel limited the lifespan of a light bulb to 1000 hours. Before that light bulbs had an average lifespan of 2500 hours. And now??

Eco-certifications have become an important site of power struggles in commodity sectors such as forestry,
fisheries, aquaculture, palm oil, and soy. In each, multiple eco-certification initiatives have been
developed and resisted through interactions among non-governmental organizations, governments,
and commercial actors. This paper contributes to understanding how power is embodied in certifications
by exploring how territoriality manifests in the international struggle over defining what products are
‘sustainable’ and which producers will have access to markets that require ‘sustainable’ products.
Focusing on the wild capture fisheries sector in which the non-governmental Marine Stewardship
Council (MSC) administers the preeminent eco-certification initiative, we explore the emergence of
new fisheries eco-certification initiatives in Japan, Iceland, Alaska, Canada, and the US that insist there
is no transnational monopoly on judgments over fisheries sustainability. We argue that these new
eco-certifications attempt to defend and embed territorial social and regulatory relations of production
within the contested domain of transnational sustainability governance. The initiatives accommodate
both the territorially embedded material interests, institutions, and discursive strategies of producers
(and their state supporting agencies) and transnationally embedded governance norms for assessing
and communicating sustainability. They also counter the globally applicable institutions of the MSC in
favor of making space for state and non-state actors to contend with demands for sustainability in the
global seafood market by combining place-specific attributes with transnational governance norms.

Policy makers and their advisors are developing an increasingly sophisticated understanding of what influences consumer behaviour; this can feed through into the design and use of energy labels.  This paper examines one area of research, EU CO2 labelling of cars, to see what aspects might be usefully applied to appliance labelling.  While the paper may be  too late to feed into the latest revision of the EU Energy Labelling Directive, the findings could be used by Member States (MSs), local government, NGOs and others to frame and support the use of the energy label by providing additional information to consumers in person and online.
There are significant differences between buying new cars and appliances, such as a greater sense of personal identification with the car than a fridge, and the fact that a new appliance is more likely to be a distress purchase. This may seem to make comparisons unhelpful; however, there are many aspects in common: for example similar information sources and criteria for selection.
Further, some of the ideas that have been put forward for appliance labels have already been tried out on a large (MS) scale on car labels. MSs have considerable freedom on what information to include in the EU car label and how to present it, (in contrast to the appliance label which is standardised across the EU).  This means that different information has been provided and diverse label designs have been used.  For example, running costs may be included and MSs who use categorical labels have used both absolute and relative CO2 performance to set label categories. 
The paper reviews the different approaches of EU car labelling in different MSs and the studies which have tested out different car label options.  It then explores the extent to which some of these aspects could be usefully transferred to support appliance labelling.

The number of eco-labeling schemes is rising dramatically, yet the rigor and credibility of such schemes remains uneven. Whereas some eco-labeling organizations (ELOs) comply with best practice guidelines designed to increase the credibility of their standards through attention to good operating principles, such as transparency and impartiality, others do not. Within this article, I attempt to explain this variation through multivariate regression analysis of an original cross-sectoral dataset of transnational ELO policies and practices. I find compelling evidence to suggest that ELOs with environmental non-governmental organization (ENGO) partners, nonprofit structures, or broad transnational reach are most likely to comply with best practices. I also find that private ELOs are more likely to disregard best practices than public ones. Conversely, I find little evidence that levels of industry funding or sector-specific competition dynamics affect best practice compliance. This study contributes new data, a new method of comparison, and new findings to the growing literature on transnational governance.

No uniform law for regulating the toxicity or labeling of fertilizers exists. Rather, myriad hazardous waste laws and regulatory bodies are responsible for various aspects of the practice of recycling industrial waste into fertilizers, often with little enforcement or oversight. As a result, the fertilizers we use on our farms and gardens contain high levels of toxic metals that are also not listed on the label.
It is imperative that the FDA includes a comprehensive risk assessment addressing the risks linked to pesticides and fertilizers described in this comment and make amendments to the Standards for the Growing, Harvesting, Packing, and Holding of Produce for Human Consumption including these chemical risks thus allowing for an additional comment period so that members of the public have time to review the assessments and voice their concerns.

‘‘Eco-labels’’ are an increasingly important form
of private regulation for sustainability in areas such as carbon
emissions, water consumption, ethical sourcing, or organic
produce.The growing interest and popularity of eco-labels has
also been coupled with growing concerns about their credibility,
in part because the standard-setting and conformity
assessment practices that eco-labels adopt exhibit striking
differences. In this paper,we assess which assurance practices
contribute to eco-labels being perceived as better governed, in
the eyes of experts as well as the media. Unlike previous
studies, which are mostly conceptual, qualitative, or focused
on one or few eco-labels, we study a large set of eco-labels,
combining data from three different sources. Our findings
suggest that experts and media are primarily concerned about
‘‘re-assurance’’ practices, looking for one or preferably multiple
layers of ‘‘re-assurance’’ that independent parties are
overseeing the eco-label and the firms certified under it.

The rise of global sustainability standards has led to an energetic discussion about their consequences and outcomes. Almost all standards today are built around ‘technology-based’ indicators, which prescribe certain practices assumed to lead to sustainable outcomes. However we are now seeing the emergence of the first ‘performance-based’ metric sustainability indicators, directly measuring outcomes without prescribing particular methods to reach them. This paper presents the example of the Bonsucro Production Standard, a sustainability standard for the sugarcane sector, and identifies five relevant areas opened up by performance-based metrics. These are flexibility in application, provision of information, the creation of dynamic standards, the enabling of adaptive management, and the harmonisation of policy instruments. Opportunities and challenges within each area are discussed in relation to a wide literature from a variety of disciplines, informing opportunities for standard-systems to explore within their own activities, as well as an agenda for future research.

The wine industry in Ontario is relatively young when compared to many of the wine regions worldwide and in recent decades has working to improve their reputation on in the global market by improving the quality of their wines, developing wine tourism and, more recently, by working to reduce their environmental impacts (VQA Ontario, 2008).  In 2007, the Wine Council of Ontario (WCO) formalized their undertaking of an industry wide voluntary initiative aimed at improving environmental stewardship.  This culminated in the publication of the final documents in a series entitled Sustainable Winemaking Ontario: An Environmental Charter for the Wine Industry (SWO) (Martin, 2007a).  These documents form a support system for industry members by outlining industry best practices as well as regulatory requirements and provide a simple means of self-assessment to identify problem areas.  The WCO and many member have expressed interest in developing a certification program to help legitimize and strengthen the SWO program and to recognize and reward successful participation.  While much of the existing literature on eco-labeling for the wine industry focuses primarily on consumer interest in and acceptance of eco-labeling, this paper uses a qualitative approach to explore the motivations and deterrents influencing participation in the Ontario wine industry’s voluntary environmental initiative and a possible eco-labeling program from the perspective of key industry decision-makers.

Obiettivo del paper . Obiettivo del lavoro e illustrare il ruolo e le potenzialita delle certificazioni ambientali all’interno delle politiche di comunicazione dei territori a vocazione turistica. Dopo una prima parte di carattere teorico, lo studio si concentra sull’analisi di una delle piu note e diffuse pratiche di certificazione ambientale a valenza turistica - la Bandiera Blu - relativamente ad una regione adriatica dell’Italia centrale - le Marche. Metodologia . L’indagine - condotta attraverso un questionario somministrato direttamente ad amministratori e referenti Bandiera Blu dei 16 comuni marchigiani che hanno ottenuto il vessillo per l’anno 2012 - indaga la consapevolezza circa i benefici e l’importanza di tale riconoscimento cosi come percepita dagli attori dell’offerta e ne misura il grado e l’efficacia di utilizzo ai fini della comunicazione turistica del territorio di riferimento. Risultati . Dallo studio emergono luci ed ombre circa la effettiva valorizzazione ai fini della comunicazione turistica della Bandiera Blu da parte dei comuni interessati. Originalita del lavoro e limiti della ricerca . Il lavoro mette in luce diversi aspetti critici circa la gestione e la comunicazione dell’attenzione alla sostenibilita ambientale da parte dei Comuni insigniti della bandiera blu. Esso puo rappresentare una base per ulteriori approfondimenti, sia a livello territoriale che a livello sui diversi attori coinvolti nei processi di governo sostenibile dei territori a vocazione turistica La ricerca ha il limite di aver circoscritto lo studio al lato dell’offerta di una sola Regione, mentre sarebbe utile estendere l’analisi ad altri territori, indagando anche la prospettiva della domanda (i turisti) e quella degli stakeholders territoriali, come i cittadini residenti e gli operatori. Implicazioni pratiche . Le criticita emerse dallo studio possono rappresentare utili spunti di riflessione sia per gli studiosi di marketing turistico che per i policy maker territoriali, sollecitando un piu efficace utilizzo delle certificazioni ambientali a fini di Destination Branding. Parole chiave: bandiera blu; certificazioni ambientali; destination branding; marketing turistico

Obiettivo del paper . Obiettivo del lavoro e illustrare il ruolo e le potenzialita delle certificazioni ambientali all’interno delle politiche di comunicazione dei territori a vocazione turistica. Dopo una prima parte di carattere teorico, lo studio si concentra sull’analisi di una delle piu note e diffuse pratiche di certificazione ambientale a valenza turistica - la Bandiera Blu - relativamente ad una regione adriatica dell’Italia centrale - le Marche. Metodologia . L’indagine - condotta attraverso un questionario somministrato direttamente ad amministratori e referenti Bandiera Blu dei 16 comuni marchigiani che hanno ottenuto il vessillo per l’anno 2012 - indaga la consapevolezza circa i benefici e l’importanza di tale riconoscimento cosi come percepita dagli attori dell’offerta e ne misura il grado e l’efficacia di utilizzo ai fini della comunicazione turistica del territorio di riferimento. Risultati . Dallo studio emergono luci ed ombre circa la effettiva valorizzazione ai fin...

Most Brazilian buildings have low performance in terms of energy, since they received little attention (or none) concerning energy efficiency. In 2009, new perspectives to change this situation emerged, due to an initiative by the Federal Government, that established the necessary regulations for energy efficiency labelling in buildings, and broadened the Brazilian Labelling Program, which, up until then, encompassed only machinery and equipment. Never before had that happened in Brazil: conditions were defined for the classification of commercial buildings according to their energy efficiency, considering lighting and airconditioning systems, and the architectural envelope. The major purpose of this article is to analyze, from a business point of view, the compliance with the new regulations for energy efficiency labelling in hotel buildings, where small businesses are predominant. Hotels have been targeted for large investments, since they have become the pillars of Brazil's project to welcome tourists during the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games. The outcome of this article is a broad analysis on the application of new regulations for labelling the level of energy efficiency of the hotel business, based on two perspectives: the external environment (opportunities and threats) and the internal environment (strengths and weaknesses).

This book provides an analysis of the politics of consumption and how the ‘educated consumer’ plays a vital role in advancing responsible market practices and consumption. Based on a comprehensive interdisciplinary perspective, it explores the extent, drives and links of boycotting, buycotting, labelling schemes and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in 20 European countries. A central question addressed is whether macro-societal patterns of orientation concerning the roles of the state, companies and citizens can explain individual and cross-national differences in boycotting and buycotting. As the book shows, there is not one type of ‘political consumer’, but several, and their occurrence is directly connected to national variations of labelling schemes and Corporate Social Responsibility. Consumers need reference points and information on the political backgrounds of purchases, and policy makers must address that need through political measures which fit to the national patterns in views about cooperation and market relationships.

This study provides insights into young consumers’ responses to sustainable labels. Drawing on signaling theory, the article studies how third-party labels (TPLs) act and interact with company-level claims, trying to better understand their impact on young consumers’ perceptions and willingness to buy (pay for) a chocolate bar. A between-subjects factorial experiment—conducted by manipulating third-party sustainable labels (presence/absence of the labels) and self-declared claims (absence of the claim, formal claim, and friendly claim)—was used to test: (a) the effect of TPLs and self-declared claims on consumers’ perceptions, purchase intention, and willingness to pay, (b) whether this effect was mediated through the perceived credibility of the sustainability message, and (c) what kind of tone-of-voice adopted in the company’s claim was more effective. Data were collected via an online survey among a sample of 315 consumers (age range: 18–39 years) in South Italy. We found that th...

As a typical consumer, it is difficult to estimate the long term environmental and economic consequences housing type and household location will have when both home and associated transportation costs are to be considered jointly. Were information to be presented more clearly to home buyers however, such as with an eco-label, as well as policies drafted at the municipal level to more fairly price municipal services and taxes, we believe market forces could be leveraged to guide individuals toward making more informed and sustainable choices. To better understand the actual costs and emissions generated and incurred over a 50-year lifespan, we design 8 different scenarios for 100-hectare suburban developments and estimate the effect of varying the density, land use mix, distance from central business district and access to commuter rail, on emissions and operating costs for both housing and multi-modal transportation, all the while controlling for household type and unit size. Our results indicate that, using very conservative estimates for both household energy-related emissions and vehicle costs, the difference over a 50-year lifespan from the most to the least sustainable option is $555,972 (73% greater) and 218,115 kg CO2 (92% greater) for a typical family with children living in a 1,250 square foot unit.

As a typical consumer, it is difficult to estimate the long term environmental and economic consequences housing type and household location will have when both home and associated transportation costs are to be considered jointly. Were information to be presented more clearly to home buyers however, such as with an eco-label, as well as policies drafted at the municipal level to more fairly price municipal services and taxes, we believe market forces could be leveraged to guide individuals toward making more informed and sustainable choices. To better understand the actual costs and emissions generated and incurred over a 50-year lifespan, we design 8 different scenarios for 100-hectare suburban developments and estimate the effect of varying the density, land use mix, distance from central business district and access to commuter rail, on emissions and operating costs for both housing and multi-modal transportation, all the while controlling for household type and unit size. Our results indicate that, using very conservative estimates for both household energy-related emissions and vehicle costs, the difference over a 50-year lifespan from the most to the least sustainable option is $555,972 (73% greater) and 218,115 kg CO2 (92% greater) for a typical family with children living in a 1,250 square foot unit.