Feature
Issue No. 36 - August/September 2007
Wise up to Europe‘s green scene
Europe holds huge export potential for companies that revise their attitudes toward EU environmental legislation from costly compliance to major marketing invitation.
Rather than reluctantly implementing environmental initiatives and only hoping to recoup lower input costs, exporters should look on them as an investment in product differentiation in an affluent market.
“European consumers are much more aware of environmental issues than Australian consumers are,” said Adelaide-based sustainability advisor Peter Moser.
“They actually read the labels. The EU has a lot of regulations and rules. If your product has a 'green' story, then put it on your package. A lot of Europeans, especially in the affluent economies, use that as a point of differentiation - not just for wine, but for everything.
“Many businesses in Australia have not cottoned on to the point that these things matter. Their environmental thinking needs to move from compliance to marketing differentiation. It gives you better export opportunities and greater volumes.”
Established by the Treaty of European Union in 1993, the EU (European Union) comprises 27 members state, a massively larger entity than the six-member European Economic Community set up in 1957.
Boasting the largest economy in the world, with an estimated gross national product worth more than $18 trillion (that's 12 zeroes after the 18), the EU is a single market with a common trade policy a...
