EU & UK Energy Labeling

Designs to influence carbon-saving choices

Information Design, Prototyping, User Centered Design

The oil crisis and shortages of the 1970s, followed by heightened concern about climate change from the 1990s until now, has driven governments around the world to form energy policies aimed at conserving energy and limiting carbon emissions.

One key and now widespread program involves the regulation of energy-consuming appliances—everything from refrigerators and clothes-washing machines to air conditioners and personal computers—to establish minimum standards they must meet for energy efficiency. Upping standards over time progressively removes inefficient technologies from the market and stimulates the development of new and better technologies.

Smooth and continuing market transformation hinges on consumers choosing to upgrade to newer energy-efficient technology, based on information that’s available to them. Enter the humble energy label, which exists to provide this information—now across up to 60 product categories.

When I was engaged by the European Commission (EC), the EU’s executive arm, the European energy label was showing signs of strain after 15 years of service. I worked to improve its effectiveness over a sequence of three projects.

A lack of change to minimum standards had made the iconic A-G scale top-heavy, with many products rated between A and A+++. I was asked to consult with the EC’s Directorate-General for Energy on what this meant for its use by consumers, and to evaluate a number of proposals to address this—leading to the first occasion for a designer to be invited to present at a Consultation Forum to an audience of members of the European Parliament, industry lobbyists, and advocacy groups in Brussels. The wheels have turned slowly, so rescaling to ratings exclusively between A-G—as I recommended and evidenced with user research—is finally mandated to occur.

Prime Minister David Cameron Tries To Take A Harder Line with Europe
Machines

For specific product categories, energy labels needed to represent more criteria than simply energy savings so as to be credible for consumers, and to answer a wider set of environmental goals. Taking the category of tires for motor vehicles, I developed and tested a non-language label to for comparing all products on fuel-efficiency, wet grip and noise.

Now applied to every tire sold in EU member states, the new energy labels for tires are expected to save as much as 2.5 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year by 2020—roughly equivalent to removing 850,000 passenger cars from EU roads.

The first non-language multi-criteria label of its kind, now labels for other products have followed suit, leading to simpler, user-friendly designs, and universal application across European markets.
EC-Icons
Mechanic
Tyre-Label
A couple of years later I was engaged in a project commissioned by the UK Government’s Department for Transport to revise the UK fuel economy label for cars. At the time of a wave of popular interest in behavioral economics and persuasive technology, I designed a series of label prototypes exploring ways that consumers could be nudged into prioritizing fuel-economy and runnings costs alongside typical car purchase criteria.
Mindspace
Buyers-Guide
Car-Label
Car-Label

  • Clients

    European Commission, UK Government

  • Industries

    Automotive, Home Appliances

  • Collaborators

    Alix Chambris, Nina Renshaw, Jos Dings, Gloria Esposito, Dr Ben Lane, Dr Nick Banks, Dr Jillian Anable
Copyright John Alderson 2024