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RELATIONSHIP TO THE ESTABLISHED NAME OF THE COMMUNITY AND TO THE IDENTIFICATION OF COMMUNTY MEMBERS
The term “eco” has long been used to identify members of the Global Environmental Community (the Community), as well as concepts, products and services associated with the Community’s goal of a respectful, responsible and sustainable use of the environment. The term appears in common usage and is clearly associated by consumers with environmentally responsible practices.
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) offers the following examples:
Individuals and organizations (eg, eco-activist, eco-charities, eco-group)
Concepts (eg, eco-advocacy, eco-activism, eco-justice, eco-cultural, eco-historical, eco-literacy, eco-philosophy, eco-minded, eco-savvy, eco-awareness, eco-consciousness)
Products and services (eg, eco-product, eco-label, eco-house, eco-holiday, eco-resort, eco-bottle, eco-bulb, eco-forestry, eco-car)
(Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, Mar. 2008; online version Sept. 2011)
Eco in Consumer Protection Public Policy
Consumer protection authorities around the world recognize the fact that the “eco” and “green” labels are powerful tools for consumer communication. Regulators agree that environment-related claims on products and services, including eco-, should only be used when qualifying information can be provided and⁄or the claim proven, including in the following policies: US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Guides for the Use of Environmental Marketing Claims; UK Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Green Claims Guidance & Advertising Standards Authority Codes; Environmental Claims: A Guide for Industry and Advertisers in Canada; Green Marketing & the Australian Consumer Law; and, European Union Guidelines for Making and Assessing Environmental Claims.
The UN Guidelines for Consumer Protection are also designed to safeguard against false environmental claims. The UN pro-consumer Guidelines are designed to protect consumers’ rights, especially those in developing countries, and to raise consumer awareness about the environmental impact of products and services “through such means as product profiles, environmental reports by industry, information centres for consumers, voluntary and transparent eco-labelling programmes and product information hotlines.”
Accordingly, the .ECO Community TLD will restrict .ECO domains to Community members and require registrants to complete and display a .ECO-profile. Without community restrictions and mandatory disclosures, a .ECO TLD could be construed as making environmental claims that would be impossible for consumers to verify.
Government-sponsored Research
Recent government-sponsored studies in the US and UK on consumer understanding clearly demonstrate that “eco,” “earth,” “environmentally-friendly” and to a lesser extent, “green” are commonly used and widely recognized by consumers to convey environmentally responsible practices.
Studies in the UK paid for by Defra show 70% of respondents were very familiar or fairly familiar with the term eco-friendly, being “explicitly linked to environmental issues, but only in as much as they show a product or claim broadly relates to the environment.” (DEFRA, “An Assessment of Green Claims in Marketing”, 2010; Consumer Understanding of Green Terms, 2011.)
Studies conducted as part of a 2010 review by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Green Guides also noted a convergence of green, and eco- ⁄ earth- ⁄ environmentally-friendly as the most common general environmental terms. (FTC, “Green Marketing Internet Surf”, 2008). The studies also confirm the potential for misuse of such terms: “unqualified claims that an item is ‘environmentally friendly’ or ‘eco-friendly’ are likely to convey that it has specific and far-reaching environmental benefits.”
Independent Research
In February 2012, Vision Critical, on behalf of Big Room, conducted a survey to understand public perception around the term eco and of the .ECO TLD in general.
The majority of respondents (58%) indicated they would expect domain names ending in .ECO (eg, anyname.eco) to be members of an environmental organization, professional association or have made a specific commitment to the environment. Only 10% indicated they would not expect an environmental connection, while 32% said they did not know. Two-thirds (67%) of respondents also indicated that they would expect a website that had a domain name ending in .ECO to contain environmental⁄ecological related information. Half (51%) said they would be, and 25% said they might be confused by a .ECO TLD not associated with the Community.
The survey was a random online Omnibus survey of 1,016 US adults from diverse ages, incomes, ethnicities and regions, conducted 15-16 February 2012 among a sample of Americans who are also Springboard America panel members. The margin of error, which measures sampling variability, is +⁄-3.10%, 19 times out of 20. The sample was balanced by age, gender and region according to the most recent American Community Survey (2009).
Academic References
The OED defines the prefix eco- as a shortened form of ecology (noun) or ecological (adjective). When eco is used as stand-alone word, it is defined as shortened form of ecological (adjective), with the meaning environmentally friendly.
The OED lists over 30 words beginning with the prefix eco-, all of which relate to combined form adjectives with the sense “ecological and – –” or nouns with the sense “ecological –”. Throughout the over 70 years of documented use in the OED, eco has always been associated with ecology or ecological concepts, never as a shortened or combining form for words such as economy.
Support for a comparable use of “eco” in French is provided by Dr Pascaline Dury’s bilingual corpus-based study of the migration of vocabulary from scientific to non-scientific use. Of the 21 lexical units that appear in the study’s French news corpus, “all of them are semantically-related to the field of ecology and can be easily defined.” (Dury, P. “The rise of carbon neutral and compensation carbone”. Terminology 14(2): 236, 2008.)
POTENTIAL CONNOTATIONS BEYOND THE COMMUNITY
The OED identifies the potential for “greenwashing,” defined as “disinformation disseminated by an organisation, etc., so as to present an environmentally responsible public image; a public image of environmental responsibility promulgated by or for an organisation, etc., but perceived as being unfounded or intentionally misleading.” (BSR &Futerra, “Understanding and Preventing Greenwash: A Business Guide”, 2009.) Misuse of the “eco” label can negatively affect Community interests by making people skeptical of environmental initiatives and impeding consumers’ understanding of the impacts of their buying decisions.
While “eco” has no significant meaning other than as a short form for environment⁄ecology, it infrequently occurs as an acronym. Known international acronyms and uses are:
European Communications Office (ECO): All European Conference of Postal and Telecommunications Administrators (CEPT) divisions are housed as part of the CEPT website (www.cept.org⁄eco). There is no confusion anticipated between this usage and the .ECO TLD.
Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO): an intergovernmental regional group established by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey to promote economic cooperation in the region (www.ecosecretariat.org). As the focus is regional rather than global and on economic rather than environmental issues, there is no confusion anticipated between this usage and the .ECO TLD.
eco Association of the German Internet Industry: Confirmed in writing that it does not intend to apply for .ECO or object to Big Room’s .ECO application. See attached letter of non-objection in 20f (20d-eco-non-objection.pdf). There is no confusion anticipated between this usage and the .ECO TLD.