Communicating the environmental performance of a passenger car to consumers, experiences with the ‘Ecoscore’ methodology in Belgium

Environmental communication of the performance of a passenger car to the market is an important step in the direction towards greener purchase behavior of vehicles. Environmental communication should be developed with the target audience in mind. Environmental product declarations are mainly for business to business communication. However, the passenger car market is more based on consumers than on business customers. The interpretation of an environmental product declaration of a car is to complex and time consuming. Hence, there is a need for a simplified and aggregated environmental indication of a vehicle. For this reason the Ecoscore methodology is developed, together with a web based viewer (www.ecoscore.be).
The consumer can use the environmental rating tool to have an environmental guidance when purchasing a vehicle and thereby steering the product development of newer vehicles towards greener ones. Policy makers can use the Ecoscore to stimulate the purchase of environmental vehicles. For car manufactures this is a way to promote their vehicles and distinguish themselves from the competitors via green marketing.
The 'Ecoscore' is a single environmental indicator that integrates global warming, human health impairing effects and harmful effects on ecosystems. Ecoscore is a simplified LCA that focusses on a select number of emissions and has a well-to-wheel framework. The aim of this paper is to discuss the methodological aspects and the lessons learned from implementing the Ecoscore in Belgium.