A traffic light-style grading system has been developed to help consumers choose more sustainable goods and encourage more innovation from producers.

Due to be piloted this autumn, the Foundation Earth initiative will see a group of Europe’s leading food brands launch front-of-pack environmental scores on a range of products this September, while the world’s largest food business, Nestlé , is supporting an intensive nine-month development programme to prepare the Foundation for full Europe-wide roll out in 2022.

The initiative follows the UN’s intergovernmental panel on climate change’s warning that the food industry already contributes up to 37 per cent of global greenhouse gases and that, without intervention, these are likely to increase by another 30 per cent by 2050, due to increasing demand from population growth.

The traffic light system will appear on the front of packaging, showing environmental impact scores which aim to promote more sustainable buying choices from consumers, and more environmentally-friendly innovation from food producers.

The system behind the labels has been developed by researchers at Oxford University and at WWF . It covers the environmental impact of all parts of the upstream value chain for food, including farming, processing, packaging and transportation to stores. An overall grade is given based on carbon footprint, water used, water pollution generated and biodiversity loss. Carbon is weighted at 49% of the overall grade, while the other topics account for 17% each.

For more information on Foundation Earth and the pilot, visit their website .

Have some new packaging you’d like to share? Submit your project here for a chance to be featured!