ISO Principles for Environmental Labels and Claims
The Green Market Oracle
These principles are taken from CAN/CSA-ISO 14020, these principles are a prerequisite for all the other standards in the 14020Series.
1. Environmental labels and declarations shall beaccurate, verifiable, relevant, and not misleading.
2. Procedures and requirements for 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.
3.Environmental labels and declarations shall be based on scientificmethodology that is sufficiently thorough and comprehensive to supportthe claim and that produces results that are accurate and reproducible.
4. Information concerning the procedure, methodology, and any criteriaused to support environmental labels and declarations shall be available and provided upon request to all interested parties.
5. Thedevelopment of environmental labels and declarations shall take intoconsideration all relevant aspects of the life cycle of the product.
6. Environmental labels and declarations shall not inhibit innovation that maintains, or has the potential to improve, environmental performance.
7. Any administrative requirements of information demands related toenvironmental labels and declarations shall be limited to thosenecessary to establish conformance with applicable criteria andstandards of the labels and declarations.
8. The process ofdeveloping environmental labels and declarations should include an open, participatory consultation with interested parties. Reasonable effortsshould be made to achieve a consensus throughout the process.
9.Information on the environmental aspects of products and servicesrelevant to an environmental label or declaration shall be available topurchasers and potential purchasers from the party making theenvironmental label or declaration.
Source
Richard Matthews is a consultant, sustainable investor, writer and owner of The Green Market Oracle, a leading sustainable business blog that covers the convergence of sustainable capitalism and the global environment.The Green Market is one of the most comprehensive resources for information and tools on sustainability. Follow The Green Market's twitter feed and see the Facebook Fan Page.
Richard is a contributor to more than 50 publications. Find him on Facebook and Linkedin.