Environmental Management and PoliciesProf. Dr. Magnus Fröhling

Presentation by: Mª Cristina Maillo Pérez 61308, Junior Tome Grando Tonett 61450, Omar

Hasnaoui 61805

Ecolabelling

and

the efforts to make it fair for business

Index• Ecolabelling definition.

• Brief History.

• Source of ecolabelling.

• ISO 14000/ Types.

• Pros and Cons.

• Greenwashing.

• Conclusion.

• Summary.

• References.

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Ecolabelling - Understanding

Ecolabelling is the use of labels

on products

to show how environmentally friendly

and performanced they are

to help consumers

to identify and buy them.

3/27Source: http://www.greenmarketing.com/images/uploads/Eco-Labels.png

Brief history

• Before the 40’s

• Labels warn about the effects. Most of them applied to pesticides.

• In the 70’s come to all toxic products.

• The volunteer labels stated by the own producer or by Eco-ONGs.

• In 1977 Blau-Engel

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Source: https://www.blauer-engel.de/

Brief History• In the 80’s

• Impacts of production on intensive exploration.

• Soil air and water pollution.

• Ozone problems.

• Climate changes.

• RESULT is grow the so called “green market”.

• At Eco-92, in Brazil, released a set of principles (GUIDE) toGovernments implement Eco policies.

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• AWARENESSThe protection and conservation = important issue among countries and population.

• WILINESSConsumers concerned and willing to buy eco-friendly products.

• STIMULLATIONFirms to offer such products.Few firms mplement environmental improvements and management systemsAdvertise it in their labels.

• ECO IN DISGUISESome started to make only “aesthetic” changes in their labels for the economic benefit.

• STANDARDIZATION Aesthetic recognized (a problem). ISO developed standards to give credibility.To make it fair for the business who invested could prove the environmental performance.

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Source of Ecolabeling

ISO 14001:2015 sets out the criteria for an environmental management system.

It maps out a framework that a company or organization can follow to set up aneffective environmental management system.

It can be used by any organization regardless of its activity or sector.

Using ISO 14001:2015 can provide assurance to company management andemployees as well as external stakeholders that environmental impact is beingmeasured and improved.

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Source: http://www.iso.org/iso/iso14000

ISO 14001- Environmental management

Ecolabelling - TypesThe ISO 14020 series of standards give businesses guidelines for the implementation of environmental labelling. There are three types of voluntary labeling:

TYPE I - Ecolabelling schemes (ISO 14024:1999).

• Voluntary and multiple-criteria based. It is awarded by a third partythat authorises the use of environmental labels on products indicatingoverall environmental preferability of a product within a particular product category based on life cycle considerations.

• This ISO also includes the certification procedures.

• Requirements:Compliance with environmental legislation.The life cycle of the whole product must be taken into consideration to set the

product criteria.Firms have to be able to demonstrate transparency through all their process.Product environmental criteria and product functions have to be verifiable.

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Source: Global Ecolabelling

Nordic Swan

Source: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref1705

Ecolabelling - TypesTYPE II – Self-declared environmental claims (ISO 14021:1999).

• Purpose: Harmonize the use of the self-declared environmental claims and symbols so they can be useful for the consumers.

• Claims requirements:Accurate and not misleading.Substantiated and verified.Unlikely to result in misinterpretation.

• Claims as “ environmentally friendly ”, “ green ” and “ nature’s friend ” shall not be used.

• This ISO also deals with the evaluation and verification, therefore claimants are:Responsible for the claim.Have to show the method used. Give access to the information.

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Source: EcolabelIndex

Source: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref1705

Ecolabelling - TypesTYPE III- Life-cycle data declaration (ISO 14025:2006).

• Voluntary programs that provide quantified environmental data of a product, underpre-set categories of parameters set by a qualified third party and based on life cycleassessment.

• This ISO is significant for the firms that want to purchase products with good environmental performance, allowing them to make objective comparisons between the products that have the same function.

• They have limited application to the consumer market.

10/27Source: http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref1705

Source:

http://www.awc.org/greenbuilding/epd

PROS AND CONSPros:

• Allow consumers to recognize the environmentally friendly products.

• Firms willing to change into more environmentally ways ofproduction would be able to benefit from the acquisition of theecolabel.

• It is an important aspect for their marketing.

• Add value to consumers.

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PROS AND CONSCons:

• Large investments, before and after acquiring the ecolabel, to transform into the “greentechnology”. Hence to start is costly and the return is on the long run.

• Firms can be awarded an ecolabel for a certain product using green technologies, meanwhile,they can still use conventional technologies for other products and that is accepted by theecolabelling organizations.

• There are 465 schemes in 199 countries, which many times confuse the consumer.

• Most of the consumers are not well informed and do not know the real meaning of theecolabels.

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Do Eco-Labels tell alwaysthe truth?

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Currently there are over 465 ecolabels for food and consumerproducts in the global marketplace

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Source: http://www.greenmarketing.com/images/uploads/Eco-Labels.png

Greenwashing• Greenwashing is a variety of strategies used by companies to make

their products appear environmentally friendly.Greenwashers oftenplace vague labels on their products such as “natural” or“sustainable,” to manipulate the consumer to choose their productover another.

• Greenwashing efforts can range from changing the name or label of a product to evoke the natural environment on a product that containsharmful chemicals to multimillion-dollar advertising campaignsportraying highly polluting energy companies as eco-friendly.

• Many corporate structures use greenwashing as a way to repair publicperception of their brand.

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The mobius Loop

This basic ecolabel means that the product is recyclable, but not thatit will be recycled.

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Source:

http://ecoscene.info.yorku.ca/sustainabil

ity-accreditation/

NO CFCs Eco labels

This eco-label refers to a product free of chlorofluorocarbons thatcould be found in aerosols but CFC’s were banned way back in 1978.

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Source: http://www.purspraypet.com/blog/natural-flea-

control/greenwashing-green-isnt

Aspects of Greenwashing• Aspect of the Hidden Trade-Off: The aspect of the Hidden Trade-off is committed

by suggesting a product is “green” based on a single environmental attribute,without attention to other importante

Example: Paper Product that promotes their recycled content or sustainableharvesting practices without attention to manufacturing impacts such as airemissions, water emissions, and global warming impacts.

• Aspect of Vagueness: The confused and vague formulations disconcert and oftenleave more questions unanswered than providing answers.

Example: Typical formulations such as "wood from controlled forests", "producedecologically“. 18/27

• Aspect of no proof: Some eco-labels contain indications that can not beproved by organizations.

Example: Mentioning "printed on FSC paper" without a corresponding logo with verification number used.

• Using unrecognized or false labels: Marketers create false labels to misleadconsumers so that they think that their product is environmentally friendly.

Example: Some products contain private labels which claim fight global warming.

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• Aspect of irrelevance: Excessively highlight the product's characteristicsthat are correct but irrelevant.

Example: Some fridge and air conditioner manufacturer claim that theirproducts are “CFC-Free” which is irrelevant since CFCs are banned by law.

• Aspect of lesser of two evils: It is misleading to highlight positive aspectsof a product to divert attention from the more important negative aspect.

Example: As an example when a producer puts forward his performance in terms of CO2 emissions but doesn’t provide indications about otheremissions like air or water especially when they are bad.

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CONCLUSION• Ecolabelling is fair for business. Specially for B2B.• Helps firms to export.• Gives more credibility to the company.• ISO helps your product recognition by consumers.• ISO provides standardization.• Shows the company is aligned to environment concern.• Make the supply chain to search for the ISO too.• Communicate to market which direction your company wants to go.• But they may not always tell the whole true.• Still confusing to the consumer.

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SummaryEcolabelling is a booming sector. So far, there are more than 465environmental labels listed in more than 199 countries due to the growingpressure for more environmentally and sustainable production systems.

However when the proliferation of ecolabels began, confusion amongconsumers appeared and this gave a breach for the companies to useGreenwashing.

Since organizations as ISO realized about that problem, they launched thestandardization to make it fair for the companies that had invested ingreen technologies.

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Q & A

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REFERENCES• http://www.iso.org/iso/home.html• http://www.globalecolabelling.net/what-is-eco-labelling/• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecolabel• http://www.explainthatstuff.com/eco-labelling.html• http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/• http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/the-ecolabel-scheme.html• http://www.ecolabelindex.com/ecolabels/• https://www.gdrc.org/sustdev/concepts/05-e-label.html• https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/envir_e/labelling_e.htm• http://www.iso.org/iso/home/standards/management-standards/iso14000.htm• http://www.ecolabelindex.com/• Cesare Dosi and Michele Moretto, (Is Ecolabelling a Reliable Environmental Policy Measure?), 22 March 2000• How green is green? ISO standards can help! by Roger Frost on 14 February 2013

http://www.iso.org/iso/home/news_index/news_archive/news.htm?refid=Ref1705• Evan Bozowsky and Hiroko mizuno, “Introduction to ecolabelling”, 2004, Global ecolabelling Network Information paper

IMAGES:• http://unitedrescues.eu/success/• http://www.lizlomax.com/2009/04/your-questions-answered/• https://wandylee.wordpress.com/tag/ecolabelling/• http://ec.europa.eu/environment/ecolabel/eu-ecolabel-for-consumers.html• https://www.globalecolabelling.net/gen-members/nordic-countries/• http://www.awc.org/img/greenbuilding/logo_ule.jpg• https://www.mcgillcompost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/01/logo-EU-compostable-221x300.jpg• https://www.blauer-engel.de/

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