Eco-Labeling Policy Development
Green Seal plays a global role
Green Seal has been active since its inception in helping to shape policy at the national and international levels in areas of most concern to its mission - the practice and use of ecolabelling and environmental product standards; making government procurement more environmentally responsible; and coordinating among ecolabelling practitioners world-wide.
Among Green Seal's achievements in the policy area are the founding and building of the Global Ecolabelling Network; the development of acceptable international standards for environmental labeling; and the proper allowance for use of third-party ecolabelling in Federal procurement.
Green Seal spent much of the 1990s immersed in the development of the environmental labeling standards of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) under the ISO 14000 environmental management series. The standards, which lay out the principles and procedures to be followed in labeling of products and services for environmental attributes, promised to have considerable weight in the global marketplace because of the backing of ISO, an established and well-respected standards organization for commerce.
In 1994 Green Seal, with the Canadian ecolabelling program, Environmental Choice, spearheaded the founding of the formal association of third-party ecolabelling organizations, the Global Ecolabelling Network. GEN promotes third-party ecolabelling and coordinates work of its members to achieve more harmonized standards and certifications world-wide.
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