The growing focus of capitalist environmental regulation on consumption patterns is to be welcomed. But even where these initiatives are connected with product design, integrated product policy (IPP) and eco-service development, they are unduly limited if consumption remains defined as an individual act. There is a growing literature not just critiquing individual consumption as an alienated and destructive aspect of capitalism, but also criticizing various forms of consumerism, like green consumerism, as an avoidance of basic change. As mentioned above, most green consumerism has little or no effect on the productivist and accumulationist driving forces of the capitalist economy. Even when one can trust the product evaluation, there is also no guarantee that the sale of green products results in a corresponding reduction in sales of brown products. Green products might simply constitute more luxury add-on niche markets for those who can afford the products. Then there is the whole problem of information and knowledge. It is interesting to look at the development of information and eco-labelling programmes directed at private consumers over the last 20 years. Even in Europe, where awareness is greatest, there is a definite reticence of governments and corporations to put sufficient resources into developing these programmes. The most successful of the eco-labelling programmes, Germanys Blue Angel, has declined somewhat since the late nineties, and the European Unions scheme is growing very slowly. In many places like Canada, ecolabelling initiatives have not prioritized consumers, but rather company-to-company