What is the Nordic Swan Ecolabel?

Heat records, drought, extreme winter weather, torrential rains, hurricanes and floods. Plants and animals going extinct. Chemicals that accumulate in nature, contaminated drinking water and more involuntarily childless. Forests that are being cut down and disappearing.

These are just some of the challenges we face. And which most of us would like to help solve. And we need to unite to solve them – because it's not something a person, a nation or a continent can do alone. On the other hand, we all have the opportunity to contribute – and to establish new, good habits in everyday life, which together can have a great effect.​

One of the things you can do in your everyday life is to look for the Nordic Swan Ecolabel when shopping – or when you need to choose new clothes and furniture or find a hotel for your holiday. The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is the official Nordic ecolabel and is supported by the authorities in all Nordic countries. The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is also one of the world's toughest and most ambitious ecolabels, and the label aims to guide you to products that are among the environmentally best on the market. ​

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel looks at the whole​

The goal of the Nordic Swan Ecolabel is to reduce the overall environmental impact from production and consumption. This requires knowing where in the product's journey environmental problems arise, where they are greatest and what can be done about it. Therefore, the Nordic Swan Ecolabel looks at the product's life cycle.​

When you as a consumer buy a product in a store, it has previously been on a long journey. First, the product has been designed. Then raw materials are obtained, and then the product is produced by some employees at a factory, where energy and chemicals are often used in the process. The next part of the journey is to pack the products and ship them out to a store where you as a consumer can buy them home and use in your daily life. Finally, the product is given on for recycling, thrown away or sorted waste. Everything is part of the product's life cycle – and along the way, it leaves an imprint on both the environment, climate and people.​

In order for a product to be certified with the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, it must meet some strict requirements in the phases of the life cycle. The strictest requirements will be where there is the greatest possibility of reducing the environmental impact, and the requirements depend on the product it is.​

Looking at the entire product life cycle helps to distinguish the Nordic Swan Ecolabel from most other labelling schemes, which often only look at a single phase.

You don't have to deal with difficult dilemmas​

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel is a holistic brand. This means that the label looks at all relevant environmental parameters throughout the product's life cycle. And this means that you as a consumer do not have to decide on difficult dilemmas when choosing products. Because there are many things to take into account when you want to make better choices in everyday life. And what is most important? The loss of biodiversity? Climate change? The impact of chemicals on the environment and humans? When choosing products with the Nordic Swan Ecolabel, you do not have to prioritize.​

The holistic approach ensures, among other things, that a one-sided focus on one phase of the product's life cycle or on one environmental problem is avoided. For example, if you want to buy more environmentally friendly clothes, it is not enough to think about the raw materials and go for organic cotton. Here you also need to think about the production phase and whether the chemicals that have been used in production can harm the environment and people – and how good the quality of the clothes is, so you don't have to buy a new t-shirt every 2 months. 

Products are different – therefore the requirements are also different​

The Nordic Swan Ecolabel sets product-specific requirements. This means that furniture must meet one set of requirements to be certified, care products for another set of requirements and clothing for a third. Only in this way will it be possible to identify where the greatest environmental challenges are for each product type. Because while some products have the greatest impact on the environment in the production phase, others do so when we use the products. And while some product groups have great potential for reducing climate impact, others have great potential for reducing the use of unwanted chemicals. Here, the Nordic Swan Ecolabel ensures that the requirements are set where there is the greatest opportunity to minimize the overall environmental impact.