Constructing environmental friendliness: The case of the German Blue Angel

Abstract

Today’s product market is rich in different product labelling schemes, ranging from fairtrade to various eco-labels on national and international levels. A few decades ago this was not yet the case; only very few labels existed. The very first eco-label was the German Blue Angel which was founded in 1978. It is by now one of the most commonly known eco-labels certifying environmentally friendly products in Germany and abroad. It initially started with only a few product categories however, the Blue Angel is currently being used by around 980 producers, 21 per cent of which are foreign suppliers. The label is borne by over 11,000 products including for instance, furniture, varnish, paint, electrical devices and paper (Der Blaue Engel, 2011). In contrast to existing studies, I want to take a more distanced social scientific approach by analysing the Blue Angel’s main characteristic, namely its environmental friendliness. We attribute environmental friendliness as the focal value to products labelled with the Blue Angel. This label certifies environmental friendliness as a profound and distinct indication of quality for all Blue Angel certified specific products; in contrast to unlabelled products, which are recognised as being less environmentally friendly. As I will show in this paper, such qualities were far from self-evident or clearly defined. Furthermore, the boundaries of what constitutes environmental friendliness have been the object of constant readjustment and sometimes even open conflict within this labelling system. With the historical approach I have taken, the processes through which environmental friendliness has been shaped during the development of this labelling system and how certain standards of environmental friendliness evolved will be analysed. I will attempt to answer the question of why a need for labelling arose at all and how the idea of environmental friendliness and the Blue Angel have developed over time.