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7.2 General
Principles of Environmental Labeling as per ISO 14020
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Environmental
labels and declarations shall be accurate, verifiable, relevant and
non-deceptive.
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Procedures
and requirements of environmental labels and declarations shall not be
prepared, adopted or applied with a view to, or with the effect of
creating unnecessary obstacles to international trade.
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Environmental
labels and declarations shall be based on scientific methodology that is
sufficiently through and comprehensive to support the claim and that
produces results that are accurate and reproducible.
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The
development of environmental labels and declarations should, wherever
appropriate, take into consideration the life cycle of the product or
service.
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Environmental
labels and declarations shall not inhibit innovation which maintains or
has the potential to improve environmental performance.
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Any
administrative requirement or information demand related to
environmental labels and declarations shall be limited to those
necessary to establish conformance with applicable criteria and
standards of the labels and declarations.
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The
process of developing environmental labels and declarations should
include an open, participatory consultation with interested
parties. Reasonable efforts should be made to achieve a consensus
throughout the process.
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Information
on the environmental aspects of products and services relevant to an
environmental label or declaration shall be available to purchasers from
the party making the environmental labels or declaration.
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Information
concerning the procedure, methodology, and any criterion used to support
environmental labels and declarations shall be available and provided
upon request to all interested parties.
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7.3 Type II
Ecolabelling as per ISO 14021
Type II Eco-labeling scheme given in ISO 14021 is meant for the self-declaration of
claims by the company regarding its products or services and do not call for
third party certification like 'Ecomark' scheme which is like Type II
Scheme. Some government agency needs to be designated to accredit
laboratories/technical institutions to verify claims made by the
manufacturers. Also the manufacturers following Type II Eco-labeling
Scheme need to follow general principles of Eco-labeling as per ISO
14020. In Type II Eco-labeling scheme, the manufacturers simply
declare the information they wish to declare about the environmental aspects
of their products. The self-declared claims made in respect of
products may be in the form of statement, symbol or graphics on product or
package label, product literature, technical bulletins, advertising, etc.
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Some of the terms for commonly used self-declared environmental claims are:
ISO 14021
specifies usage and qualification criteria and evaluation methodology for
all such terms.
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8.0
Conclusion
It is amply
clear that regulatory actions by pollution control agencies alone can not
restore the environment to its pristine state. Pro-active and
promotional roles as envisaged in Environmental Management System as per ISO
14001 as well as Type II Eco-labeling scheme given in ISO 14021 should also
be geared up in harmony with the overall environmental protection
strategy. The time has come for consumers to take the lead in
prompting manufacturers to adopt clean and eco-friendly technologies and
environmentally safe disposal of used products through preventive and mitigate
approaches.
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(Source : Indian Export Bulletin, March 10-16, 2001)
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