After watching the umpteenth car commercial waving it’s NCAP 5-star safety label in my face, I went to Euro NCAP’s website to learn a thing or 2:
In 2010 they tested 29 cars, and every tested car scored at least 4 stars (a French 3-stars and a Chinese disaster aside), a large 65% scored the maximum of 5 stars. Why would those manufacturers bother pushing themselves to produce even safer cars at any given time? There are no stars left for improvement, so why invest more for something they can’t sell in their advertisements? In 2009 a whopping 90% of the tested cars got the 5 star rating, so maybe we are already moving in the right direction…
The content of NCAP labels is changing every year. What is worth 5 stars today, may notbe worth 5 stars next year. Although this system works and keeps it simple for the consumer, it doesn’t really challenge manufacturers to innovate the safety of vehicles (more). The small incremental steps they take, go almost unnoticed, as they receive their 5 stars year after year…
Similar story presents itself when walking around an appliance store:
You’ll see the European energy-efficiency labels everywhere, on dishwashers, washing machines, fridges, tumble dryers,… All machines used to have labels from G (worst) to A (best), but as technology progressed in terms of energy efficiency they kept adding labels. So after some time, the labels nowadays don’t go from F up to A+ or A++, but up to A+++. Can you blame a consumer to think an A-label product is “pretty sustainable”? Why pay double for something that looks only marginally better?
The European Commision has also acknowledged the need for something new, so this system will be adjusted in the near future. 2011 seems to be a transitional year for the European energy labels. But what it will look like isn’t clear yet.
Don’t get me wrong, regulation of safety and energy-efficiency of consumer products is necessary, and benchmarking for tracking future progress is great. It enables clients to review products/services more thoroughly before buying or using, and lets them to compare them to one another.
But I think we would be better off with a system that challenges manufacturers in terms of innovation and pioneering. At the same time it could inform people of how hazardous or harmful for the environment a product still is. The new labeling system could show people how much a product is doing for achieving a 0-deaths policy in traffic accidents, or the Kyoto norms for example. An A+++ dishwasher may be only 20% efficient in achieving this specific goal, it may be 80%, point is: we just don’t know. And as long as the public can’t really understand the consequences of their producing/buying habits, the shift in manufacturing/consumer patterns will never happen. It is not only the intention of the people that needs to change, it is also the way people are informed that needs to change to make this happen.
Sounds like a job for policy makers…
