Coming September 2026: The EU Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive
The Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (ECGT) regulates sustainability claims and the use of ecolabels in the EU. My Green Lab has engaged with Eversheds Sutherland—an internationally-recognized law firm with expertise in EU consumer protection, green claims, and anti-greenwashing regulation—to provide this legal review to support manufacturer and marketing compliance with the ECGT.
Starting September 27, 2026, the ECGT requires that ecolabels or sustainability identifiers must be backed by a public agency or be a robust, third-party verified certification standard with a transparent, publicly available methodology developed with stakeholder input. Any unverified environmental claims and self-declared sustainability identifiers and unqualified ecolabels are prohibited and face enhanced scrutiny and enforcement that can include fines of up to 4% of annual financial turnover.
The ACT Ecolabel 2.0 Certification Program is designed to support product manufacturer compliance with ECGT requirements in the EU market, through third-party verification of all sustainability claims and standardized methodology. Alignment with the ECGT will reduce compliance risk, preserve market access and trust, and continue and enhance commercial advantage with customers and procurement teams.
The ACT Ecolabel 2.0 Program marked a major milestone, with accelerating adoption of the revised program by manufacturers passing 1,000 certified products in early April 2026. With over 1,400 products now certified to the ACT Ecolabel 2.0 Standard and listed in the ACT Ecolabel Database, and 56 manufacturers currently in ACT Ecolabel 2.0 product certification audits, this expansion reflects growing manufacturer commitment to transparent, standardized sustainability data across laboratory product categories.
Product types new to the ACT Ecolabel 2.0 Certification Program include:
At the Fisher Scientific conference events in January, it was announced that the ACT Ecolabel will serve as the qualification for their Greener Choice designation. Since December, additional Channel Partners have also committed to integrating the ACT Ecolabel into their platforms, continuing that momentum.
Engagement with the My Green Lab ACT Ecolabel and My Green Lab Certification Programs can now can be submitted for the assessment of Actions during the EcoVadis evaluation process.
With global, trusted and actionable ratings, businesses of all sizes rely on EcoVadis’ detailed insights to comply with ESG regulations, reduce GHG emissions, and improve sustainability performance across their value chains.
Improved ACT Ecolabel platform functionality
An improved Excel-based spreadsheet to rapidly enter product and packaging claims using the SmartPaste function in the ACT Audit Platform was released in March. Please reach out to your ACT Program representative at ACT@impactlaboratories.com if you would like a copy of the updated spreadsheet.
#ActInTheWild
ACT Ecolabel certifications were seen at numerous conferences and events to start 2026.
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