One major challenge to our modern society is to reduce our dependence on fossil resources. They are used not only for transport and heating, but to produce a wide range of chemicals, plastics and other components of ordinary, everyday products.
Ecolabelling to promote bio-based production
Many of the goods currently produced from fossil-based materials can be replaced by bio-based options. Certification and labelling of bio-based products are ways of bringing attention to, and boosting demand for, these products. Today, no form of certification clearly shows consumers that a product is based on renewable raw materials.
Testfakta Bio-based is a voluntary environmental certification system for bio-based products. The purpose of certification and labelling is to make it easier for consumers to choose goods made with a high proportion of renewable raw materials. Testfakta Bio-based can thus help to raise both demand for bio-based products and the shares of renewable raw materials in existing goods. The labelling can also promote development of more bio-based alternatives.
What is meant by ‘bio-based’ products?
A bio-based product is made wholly or partly from biomass. Biomass includes natural plant material from forests, farmland or waters, but also residual and waste products from agriculture and the food industry, including slaughterhouse waste.
Testfakta Bio-based promotes sustainable consumption
By choosing bio-based products, we reduce the use of fossil resources and thereby also our impact on climate and the environment. In many cases, the actual production of bio-based materials also has less environmental impact than when fossil-based materials are produced.
Opting for products with the ‘Testfakta Bio-based’ label is therefore a step towards greater sustainability, provided that the bio-based raw material is grown and produced in a sustainable manner. Testfakta Bio-based certification therefore requires biomass production to take place sustainably and without any negative impact on food supply.
Only products with a high proportion of biomass can be certified according to Testfakta Bio-based. How high the proportion of biomass needs to be varies according to product group. A certified product may be 100% composed of renewable material, but there is often a small remaining share of fossil-based content, where the properties of bio-based chemicals are inadequate for the purpose.
