EU Guidelines for Type II Environmental Labeling

All the world's consumer markets have a statement of the company's self-environment to facilitate consumers to make informed choices and promote products and services to reduce the impact on the environment. There is also consensus among all countries in the world that it must be mandatory to ensure that environmental declarations must be clear, factual, explicit and non-misleading. Because misleading, false, meaningless, or unclear environmental statements can lead consumers to lose faith in all environmental statements and environmental labels, create unfair business competition, and make the right to use statements properly. .
Based on the above points of view, the European Union first issued the 84/450/EEC Directive, which stipulated the requirements for consistency in the laws, regulations, and management rules of member states on misleading advertising issues. Then the directive 97/55/EC was issued and revised. Misleading advertising issues in 84/450/EEC include comparative advertising in the scope of directive management. After the issuance of the ISO 14021 Type II environmental labeling standard, the European Commission established a special working group to negotiate with relevant authorities and interest groups and issued the report 67/94/22/1/00281, responding positively to the ISO 14021 standard.
The EU Public Health and Consumer Protection Committee specifically stated that the purpose of the Guidelines is to provide tools for understanding the ISO 14021 standard. It does not replace ISO 14021, and technical details still need to be queried. In the relationship between the environmental statement and the environmental management system, the European Union’s guidelines state that, in accordance with the requirements of the EMAS regulation, compliance with the management of the E-MAS registration organization, the establishment of a third-party verification system for environmental information can ensure that Reliability. Implementation of EMAS alone may not meet the ISO 14021 standard. As long as EMAS has environmental declaration information, it must meet the ISO 14021 standard.
There are five general principles in the guideline that are instructive for the implementation of Type II environmental signs in China:
First, do not use the general statement of environmental benefits brought about by products and services: in addition to the “environmentally friendly”, “green”, “no pollution”, “friends of nature”, “ecological”, etc. Can not be used, also provides that "organic", "organic products", "organic production" need to meet other relevant laws, "sustainability" because there is no definite measurement method, is also considered vague and can not be used.
Second, if the statement is likely to lead to misunderstandings, the statement may not be used by changing the wording, additional explanations, or other methods that are still misleading.
For example, if the new type is 20% more energy-efficient than the old one, the statement must be changed under the condition that the battery of the factory is used. When the battery produced by the factory is used, the new model can save 20% energy compared to the old model. For example, the product has an outer package and an inner package, and the “100% recycled material” cannot be printed on the outer package, and the “packaging box is 100% recycled material”.
Third, no statement of environmental improvement can be made that is untrue or inaccurate, or that suggests something that does not exist at all.
For example, claiming that paper does not contain some kind of tropical hardwood is not true. Because tropical hardwood is not used at all to make paper, this statement will mislead consumers into thinking that the use of tropical hardwood is universal, and the product is good for the environment. For another example, the coffee filter paper states “using a chlorine-free bleaching process.” Although the statement is true, other toxic substances in the filter paper production process are ignored and misleading.
Fourth, prohibit the making of environmental statements that cannot be verified.
For example, if a product wants to use a “biodegradable” statement, there is no recognized test method, which is a statement that cannot be substantiated. There is a way to get no result verification report, and the statement also says that it cannot be verified.
Fifth, ensure that the environmental statement can be updated to reflect the changing external environment.
For example, in the case where the law permits the sale of non-biodegradable cleaners, a certain cleaner product declaration “biodegradable” is allowed. Once the law has changed, all cleaners must be made to be biodegradable. The original declaration should be invalidated, changed to "like biodegradability" or "according to legal requirements, biodegradable." After China promulgates the ten mandatory standards for interior decoration materials, companies must comply with the mandatory standards and make green and environmental declarations, and replace them with an accurate statement of “complying with the national mandatory standards”.
This guide also covers a wider range of content, all leading to the ISO 14021 standard. For Chinese enterprises that have joined the WTO, it is helpful to correctly understand the ISO 14021 standard and correctly use the environmental statement. Because the good statement is good for occupying the market, the bad statement leads to green fraud, and the 12 statements of the Type II environmental symbol have delineated a green big world.