The Nordic Swan Ecolabel offers an effective tool for reducing the environmental and climate footprint of the grocery store. It also actively contributes to several of the UN’s sustainability goals, especially goal 12 on responsible consumption and production.
The requirements include:
- Limit value for sales share of organic food and drink, MSC-labelled fish and ecolabelled goods.
- Offering of food with lower environmental impact, for example locally produced goods.
- Routines to prevent food waste.
- Measures to limit energy use and climate impact.
- Effective waste sorting to reduce the amount of residual waste, as well as ensure the possibility of material recycling and resource utilization.
- Use of ecolabelled goods and services for their own operations.
- Training of employees.
The product group includes stores that have a wide assortment within several product groups and sell a high proportion of daily goods.
Welcome to apply for a Nordic Swan Ecolabel licence!
This is how you do:
- Read the application guide.
- Log in to the Nordic Ecolabelling Portal.
- Start your application.
If this is the first time you are applying, the authorized signatory must fill in your company information and approve the application conditions. In this way, you get login to the portal and the right to assign access to other colleagues.
Some special cases can not be done in the Nordic Ecolabelling Portal. Contact your advisor for such cases. More information can be found on Application step by step.
Please contact one of our national offices for information about fees for this product group.
Information on the latest version of the criteria for grocery stores
Nordic Ecolabelling decided on 20 January 2026 to prolong the validity of the criteria to the 31 August 2028. The new version is called 4.4.
4.2 ⇛ 4.3: Adjustment of criteria
Nordic Ecolabelling decided on January 14, 2025, to adjust the requirement for the proportion of covered refrigerator units. The requirement has been lowered from 100% to 80% covered refrigeration units. The new version is called 4.3.
4.1 ⇛ 4.2: Adjustment of criteria
Nordic Ecolabelling decided on September 24, 2024, to adjust the requirement for sales share organic and MSC labelled for Icelandic stores. The limit value for Icelandic stores has been lowered from 3 % to 2,5 %. The new version is called 4.2.
4.0 ⇛ 4.1: Adjustment of criteria
Nordic Ecolabelling decided on February 6, 2024 to adjust the requirement for sales share organic and MSC labeled for Swedish stores. The limit value for Swedish stores has been lowered from 8 % to 6 %. Furthermore, Nordic Ecolabelling decided on February 13, 2024 to adjust the requirement for energy analysis. As an alternative to standard EN-16247-1, analyzes based on national guidelines are also approved. Analyzes up to five years old are approved instead of up to three years and buildings that are five years or younger are exempt from the requirement until they have passed five years. This version is called 4.1.
4.0: New criteria generation
Version 4.0 of Nordic Ecolabelling’s criteria for grocery store has been published. The new version is valid until 31 August 2027.
Nordiska kriteriegruppen beslutade den 26 november 2024 att förlänga kriterierna med 6 månader. De gäller till och med den 30 juni 2025. Den nya versionen heter 3.6.
3.5 ⇛ 3.6: Prolongation of the validity of the criteria
The criteria have been prolonged with 6 months and are valid to 30 June 2025. The new version is called 3.6.
3.4 ⇛ 3.5: Prolongation of the validity of the criteria
The criteria have been prolonged with 12 months and are valid to 31 December 2024. The new version is called 3.5.
3.3 ⇛ 3.4: Prolongation of the validity of the criteria
The criteria have been prolonged with 18 months and are valid to 31 December 2023. The new version is called 3.4.
3.2 ⇛ 3.3: Prolongation of the validity of the criteria
The criteria have been prolonged with 18 months and are valid to 30 June 2022. The new version is called 3.3.
3.1 ⇛ 3.2: Adjustment and prolongation of the validity of the criteria
Requirement O7 has been changed and in requirement O11 a specification has been added. Furthermore, the criteria have been prolonged with 18 months and are valid to 31 December 2020. The new version is called 3.2.
3.0 ⇛ 3.1: Adjustment of criteria
- Requirement O1 has been changed for retail chains. The sales of groceries must be calculated for the chain as a whole, and not only for the stores that are included in the licence.
- The definition of a retail chain has been changed. It has been decided to remove the minimum limit of five stores for a retail chain.
The new version is called 3.1.
3.0: New criteria generation
Version 3.0 of Nordic Ecolabelling’s criteria for grocery store has been published. The new version is valid until June 30th 2019.