Many food producers improve the sustainability of their products and look for ways of
communicating the improvement. One approach is to launch a new sustainability label.
However, little is known about how to launch new sustainability labels effectively. We suggest
that such labels should not be launched in isolation, but rather linked to major drivers for
choice, such as taste, convenience, or healthiness. We tested this prediction across three
categories with different levels of sustainability, using a 2 (label communicated separately vs
linked to driver for choice) x 3 (sustainability level of category: high/medium/low) betweensubjects
design. The results provided partial support for the hypothesis that linking
sustainability labels to major drivers for choice is more effective than a stand-alone launch of
labels. The effect seems to be independent of the sustainability level of the product category.nhhma
