Spillovers from production-based environmental reporting to product labelling

Purpose: Although intuitively plausible, claims of causal links between corporate- and facility-level environmental reporting requirements and the rise of LCA-based labelling are not yet supported by explicit theoretical, empirical or historical analyses. Do production-based environmental monitoring and reporting have spillover effects and thus facilitate product-level disclosure of life cycle impacts? What is the evidence for different types of spillover effects? Methods: Thematic analysis of a dataset comprising qualitative statements made by a global set of hundreds of companies, as well as expert interviews and statements by industry associations and consultancies active in the area of product-based environmental disclosure. Results: The analysis demonstrates spillover mechanisms related to data, expertise and systems. Evidence is stronger for the role of expertise and systems than for data itself. However, data availability is closely linked to data expertise and the corresponding systems. Conclusions: Increasingly stringent corporate- and facility-level environmental reporting renders environmental life cycle labelling more feasible, thus enabling novel policy options.