Labels play an important role in the identification and recognition of social economy entities. This is helpful given the diversity of legal structures, governance models, products, services and operational approaches of such entities. By enhancing their visibility, labels can significantly raise awareness among a range of stakeholders—including policy makers, consumers, businesses and investors—about the social economy and the benefits it can bring. Increased visibility through well-designed labelling schemes can foster greater understanding, trust and engagement, ultimately facilitating access to measures such as funding, preferential tax treatment and new market opportunities across both public and private sectors.
This comprehensive guide maps existing labels tailored to, or available for, social economy entities. It highlights the diversity of labelling approaches and their potential to support the development of the social economy. Furthermore, it provides a practical checklist of key questions that policy makers and private label managers could consider throughout the process of designing, implementing and evaluating labels. This checklist includes actions to make sure labels meet the expectations and requirements of policy makers, social economy entities, as well as investors and consumers. It also highlights the need to incorporate clear, credible processes to verify compliance with defined criteria, thereby fostering trust in, and legitimacy of, labels. Finally, it stresses the need to develop effective communication and outreach efforts to enhance recognition and understanding of labels.
The guide underscores that the success of labels for the social economy relies on their ability to be meaningful, transparent and well-communicated. When effectively designed and implemented, labels can serve as useful tools to promote social innovation, support sustainable development and unlock new opportunities for social economy entities across public and private markets in sectors such as the circular economy and tourism.
This guide builds on extensive OECD and EU work on legal frameworks, as well as the European Commission’s mappings of social enterprises and their ecosystems across Europe. It synthesises insights and findings from a variety of sources, including a targeted survey administered to the European Commission Expert Group on the Social Economy and Social Enterprises (GECES), as well as the OECD Informal Expert Group on the Social and Solidarity Economy and Social Innovation. Additionally, the guide incorporates insights from 25 consultations involving more than 50 stakeholders, ensuring a broad and diverse range of perspectives.
This guide was developed by the Centre for Entrepreneurship, SMEs, Regions and Cities (CFE), as part of the Programme of Work of the OECD Local Employment and Economic Development (LEED) Programme, jointly with the European Union.