Deliverable D2.2 Report on Best Practises in Sustainability Communication among LCS

Label and Certification Schemes (LCS) have a standardised way of assessing and presenting products’ sustainability to consumers. Labels of good quality can be used by consumers to quickly identify which products have demonstrated added
sustainability compared to the average product. To do this, consumers need to be aware of the different LCS on the market, identify their label on product packaging, and understand what they are certifying (the origin of the material, the chemical exposure, the reparability, etc.). This is why the way LCS communicate to consumers is important, as they are the first source of information about their work. By providing recommendations to LCS on communicating the sustainability of biobased products to consumers, 3-CO aims to improve consumers' experience with LCS and their capacity to use them in
their purchasing decisions.
The present deliverable of the 3-CO project is a report that aims to answer the following research question: How to ensure that voluntary labels and certification schemes properly inform consumers about the sustainability of certified biobased products?

The goal of the 3-CO project (https://3co-project.eu/) is to develop and demonstrate the viability of a supportive framework for LCS on Business-to-Consumers (B2C) communication for industrial bio-based products (BBPs) that enables and supports consumers to make more sustainable purchasing choices. The focus is on consumer-oriented labelling options for industrial BBPs that are sustainable and circular in using resources, processes, and materials during their entire lifecycle. The supportive framework will consist of actionable guidelines for LCS owners that reflect consumers' and other stakeholders' needs, digital solutions to support better-informed decision-making processes of consumers, and policy recommendations on deploying social measures.