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Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience

Freshwater is crucial for food supply, as irrigation water and as production or incorporated water in industrial production of consumer goods (e.g. food, cosmetics). Manufacturing industries follow different protocols and receive different certifications for water management and efficiency in their...

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Autores principales: Nydrioti, Ioanna, Grigoropoulou, Helen
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9938042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36242669
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23573-w
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author Nydrioti, Ioanna
Grigoropoulou, Helen
author_facet Nydrioti, Ioanna
Grigoropoulou, Helen
author_sort Nydrioti, Ioanna
collection PubMed
description Freshwater is crucial for food supply, as irrigation water and as production or incorporated water in industrial production of consumer goods (e.g. food, cosmetics). Manufacturing industries follow different protocols and receive different certifications for water management and efficiency in their plants, which are also labelled on the packaging. Nowadays, consumers appear to be increasingly concerned about environmental challenges, therefore many sustainability labels have been developed (carbon, water, ecological footprint) to facilitate consumers to make more sustainable choices concerning their purchases. Consumers’ behaviour towards carbon footprint labels has been thoroughly examined in international literature; however, WF labelling studies are very limited. The key to water efficiency labelling in consumer products could be the water footprint (WF), as it measures the total volume of freshwater used to produce a product, over the full supply chain, including virtual water, “hidden” in the products, services and processes. The implementation of WF labelling of consumer products in Greece was investigated, using a questionnaire with demographical data and statements on water sustainability. The results indicate that younger consumers are not quite aware of environmental challenges related to water. According to the findings, WF could be an effective marketing driver towards water sustainability since consumers prefer a quantified label concerning water consumption, regardless of their educational level, and they are willing to pay an extra price for water sustainable products even if they have an unstable job. Manufacturers could then promote their sustainable profile and performance effectively by adopting a WF relevant labelling.
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spelling pubmed-99380422023-02-19 Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience Nydrioti, Ioanna Grigoropoulou, Helen Environ Sci Pollut Res Int Research Article Freshwater is crucial for food supply, as irrigation water and as production or incorporated water in industrial production of consumer goods (e.g. food, cosmetics). Manufacturing industries follow different protocols and receive different certifications for water management and efficiency in their plants, which are also labelled on the packaging. Nowadays, consumers appear to be increasingly concerned about environmental challenges, therefore many sustainability labels have been developed (carbon, water, ecological footprint) to facilitate consumers to make more sustainable choices concerning their purchases. Consumers’ behaviour towards carbon footprint labels has been thoroughly examined in international literature; however, WF labelling studies are very limited. The key to water efficiency labelling in consumer products could be the water footprint (WF), as it measures the total volume of freshwater used to produce a product, over the full supply chain, including virtual water, “hidden” in the products, services and processes. The implementation of WF labelling of consumer products in Greece was investigated, using a questionnaire with demographical data and statements on water sustainability. The results indicate that younger consumers are not quite aware of environmental challenges related to water. According to the findings, WF could be an effective marketing driver towards water sustainability since consumers prefer a quantified label concerning water consumption, regardless of their educational level, and they are willing to pay an extra price for water sustainable products even if they have an unstable job. Manufacturers could then promote their sustainable profile and performance effectively by adopting a WF relevant labelling. Springer Berlin Heidelberg 2022-10-15 2023 /pmc/articles/PMC9938042/ /pubmed/36242669 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23573-w Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Research Article
Nydrioti, Ioanna
Grigoropoulou, Helen
Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience
title Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience
title_full Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience
title_fullStr Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience
title_full_unstemmed Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience
title_short Using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the Greek experience
title_sort using the water footprint concept for water use efficiency labelling of consumer products: the greek experience
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9938042/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36242669
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-23573-w
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