Consumer stated preferences for environmental labels: Two case studies in the dairy sector

Climate change mitigation is one of the key environmental goals of agricultural production worldwide. According to many studies in this field (among others: Coderoni and Pontrandolfi 2016), supply side options, i.e. options that tackle production aspects of GHG mitigation, are not sufficient to reach the ambitious mitigation targets set by European (European Commission 2011 and 2012) and international climate policy agenda. Demand side options, which consist of more sustainable consumption patterns, are thus fundamental to curb agricultural GHG emissions (Coderoni et al., 2015). The most common instrument to support changes in consumption patterns are the so-called “sustainable labels”, i.e. types of labels that are designed to convey to the consumer concepts related to environmental, ethical and social sustainability (Padel et al. 2010; Vermeir and Verbeke 2006; Zander and Hamm 2010). Sustainable labels can, among other objectives, help orienting the consumer towards buying GHG-saving agricultural products and thus, mitigating agriculture’s contribution to global warming. To this extent, they are referred to as “carbon footprint” (CF) labels, as they indicate the grams of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emitted into the atmosphere along all the life cycle of a product or service, which comprises material extraction, production, transport, transformation, distribution, use and disposal of products (Kohnle 2013). While many studies have explored the production side of climate change mitigation for Italian agriculture, both at micro and macro level (among others: Rete Rurale Nazionale 2012; Coderoni et al. 2015; Coderoni and Esposti 2014; Baldoni et al. 2017), the demand side has been less explored, despite its relevant role in helping tackling climate change.