Con­sult­ing

Emp­Co Readi­ness Check for Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Seals

From 2026 onwards, new bind­ing require­ments under the EU direc­tive Empow­er­ing Con­sumers for the Green Tran­si­tion (Emp­Co) will apply. Under Emp­Co, label own­ers will, for the first time, share respon­si­bil­i­ty for ensur­ing the legal com­pli­ance of their users. Thanks to the Emp­Co Readi­ness Check, with­in just 2.5 days you will not only know whether you are affect­ed, but also how to respond in a struc­tured way.

With the Emp­Co Direc­tive, the Euro­pean Union is estab­lish­ing a bind­ing legal frame­work for envi­ron­men­tal claims made to con­sumers. Its aim is to effec­tive­ly pre­vent green­wash­ing, enhance trans­paren­cy, and ensure bet­ter com­pa­ra­bil­i­ty of sus­tain­able offer­ings.
Start­ing Sep­tem­ber 2026, the new require­ments will become legal­ly bind­ing. Com­pa­nies, brands, and espe­cial­ly providers of sus­tain­abil­i­ty and envi­ron­men­tal labels will face the chal­lenge of align­ing their claims, cri­te­ria, and process­es with the law in a time­ly man­ner. Emp­Co applies not only to tra­di­tion­al adver­tis­ing but to all forms of con­sumer communication—both online and offline.

Impli­ca­tions of Emp­Co for Cer­ti­fi­ca­tion Hold­ers and Orga­ni­za­tions with Their Own Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Pro­grams

For providers of sus­tain­abil­i­ty seals, Emp­Co rep­re­sents a fun­da­men­tal shift:

• Sus­tain­abil­i­ty seals may hence­forth only be used if they are based on a trans­par­ent and ver­i­fi­able cer­ti­fi­ca­tion sys­tem.
• Cri­te­ria, ver­i­fi­ca­tion mech­a­nisms, and gov­er­nance struc­tures must be clear­ly defined, pub­licly acces­si­ble, and ver­i­fi­able.
• Pro­pri­etary seals with­out a robust sys­tem or inde­pen­dent over­sight will face sig­nif­i­cant legal pres­sure.
• Seal providers are increas­ing­ly becom­ing joint­ly respon­si­ble for the legal com­pli­ance of the com­pa­nies that adver­tise using their seals.

Sus­tain­abil­i­ty seals and inter­nal sus­tain­abil­i­ty pro­grams are thus evolv­ing from mere mar­ket­ing tools into reg­u­la­to­ry-rel­e­vant mark­ers of trust—bringing increas­ing demands for struc­ture, inde­pen­dence, and ver­i­fi­a­bil­i­ty.

What exact­ly is the Emp­Co Readi­ness Check?

The Odona­ta Emp­Co Readi­ness Check is a stream­lined pre­lim­i­nary assess­ment for sus­tain­abil­i­ty seals and pro­pri­etary labels. With­in just 2.5 days, you’ll receive a sol­id eval­u­a­tion of your Emp­Co compliance—along with con­crete options for action.

The Emp­Co Readi­ness Check is delib­er­ate­ly designed to be lean:

• Focus­es on exist­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion, process­es, and pub­licly avail­able infor­ma­tion.
• Plau­si­bil­i­ty checks and func­tion­al analy­ses of EmpCo’s min­i­mum require­ments through tar­get­ed inter­views and process reviews.
• Eval­u­a­tion and sum­ma­ry of the results, includ­ing cor­re­spond­ing rec­om­men­da­tions for action.

Not an expert opin­ion. Not an audit. Instead, a clear basis for deci­sions regard­ing your Emp­Co strat­e­gy.