# Drivers, Barriers and Benefits of the EU Ecolabel in European Companies' Perception
## EU Ecolabel Drivers, Benefits and Barriers: Evidence from the EU Ecolabel Evaluation Survey
### Benefits  
The evidence emerging from our study shows (Figure 7) that market gains are at the top of the benefits delivered, at least for those companies that have experience with the EU Ecolabel (i.e., Licence holders). In line with the results emerging from our literature review, companies stated that the improvement of competitiveness and the increase of customers/consumer's interest and satisfaction are the major gains derived from obtaining the EU Ecolabel. These results are even more telling if we consider that they emerge despite a widespread perception among surveyed Licence holders of a general low awareness and visibility of the EU Ecolabel on the market. This may \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{l c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Weighted Mean**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Mann–Whitney U Test**} \\ \cline{2-3}
**Drivers** & & **License Holders** & & **Non-Licence Holders** \\ \hline Important Customer’s request & 0.88 & 0.92 & - \\ Increase sales & 0.81 & 0.72 & - \\ Cost savings & 0.33 & 0.26 & - \\ Access to public procurement & 0.68 & 0.71 & - \\ Export opportunities & 0.65 & 0.60 & - \\ Consumers/customers’ satisfaction & 0.88 & 0.90 & - \\ Relations with stakeholders & 0.75 & 0.88 & - \\ Employee commitment & 0.61 & 0.81 & - \\ Management commitment & 0.69 & 0.73 & - \\ Management of specific environmental aspects & 0.76 & 0.71 & - \\ Company environmental Performance & 0.80 & 0.71 & - \\ Organizational capabilities & 0.58 & 0.61 & - \\ Supply chain management & 0.50 & 0.21 & ** \\ Product innovation & 0.66 & 0.64 & - \\ Product design & 0.62 & 0.50 & - \\ Access to finance/insurance & 0.21 & 0.20 & - \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}  
*, **, and *** indicate the significance at the 10 percent, 5 percent, and 1 percent levels, respectively.  
\end{table} 
Table 1: Drivers—License holders and Non-License holders—Mann–Whitney U test. Figure 6: SME (**right**) and Larger License holder (**left**) responses to the consideration of drivers to adopt the EU Ecolabel. be an explanation for the benefit \"increased sales\" not ranking at the top of the gains obtained, although placing quite high. This may suggest that, despite the improvement of brand image, consumers' trust and access to larger markets, the paybacks in terms of sales are deemed lower than expected (\"increased sales\" is ranked higher as a driver than as a real benefit). It must also be noted that when asked about data on sales of EU Ecolabel products as demonstration of the scheme's effects on competitiveness, Licence holders were not able or did not want to provide such information because of a declared \"commercial sensitivity\" of this kind of information. Alongside market factors, the improvement of the overall environmental performance of the company is also indicated as a benefit resulting from being awarded the EU Ecolabel. Interestingly, this option was not ranked so highly as a driver, so this can be considered as a benefit that many companies would not necessarily be expecting at the outset of the process, the limited impact possibly depending on the ratio between the number of EU Ecolabel products and the overall production. More in general, these findings on the \"ex-post\" perceived benefits reinforce the picture emerging from the \"ex-ante\" analysis of the drivers to the Scheme: companies apply for the EU Ecolabel because they consider it a market- and consumer-oriented tool. The improvement of the company's environmental performance is a \"secondary\" driver, especially when the application for the EU Ecolabel is perceived as an ultimate guarantee to consumers of a much broader sustainability strategy. The results of the Mann-Whitney U test applied to the differences between Licence holders and Non-Licence holders (reported in Table 2 here below) show that there is no significant divergence between the perception of these two groups of respondents, for none of the benefits that have been investigated in the questionnaire.