| Product Standards |
The Australian Ecolabel Program provided by
Good Environmental Choice Australia Ltd (GECA) utilises standards of environmental performance for different product sectors to verify product compliance for the ecolabel. The standards are developed using a public procedure as outlined on the
Standards Development Page. These standards form the basis of assessment of environmental performance and are available on the
Standards Register Pages.
These standards are the key benchmarks which determine whether a product or service can be awarded the Good Environmental Choice
Ecolabel. Criteria are selected and evaluation
methodologies developed under the direction of the
Standards Development Committee of Good Environmental
Choice Australia. As a rule, criteria are developed using best available scientific information, stakeholder consultation, government consultation, industry consultation and consultation with other ecolabelling schemes internationally.
A life cycle assessment methodology is employed where possible to select the main areas of environmental stress and define suitable criteria for judging environmental performance.
Good Environmental Choice
Australia seeks to distinguish and reward those producers and service providers
that have improved their environmental performance, and provide an environmentally preferable product or service, from those that do not. The certification process is a comprehensive environmental impact and performance evaluation of a product or service and the associated production processes.
The emphasis on actual environmental load as opposed to environmental management is an approach markedly different
from those developing environmental management systems. Environmental Management Systems are largely an administrative methodology and not awarded based on environmental performance. A certified environmental management system is not an indicator of environmental performance while Australian Environmental Choice Certification is designed to meet this purpose.
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| A Unique and Profitable Approach Based on Science, not Budgets |
Good
Environmental Choice Australia standards are aimed at providing a best practice environmental benchmark for the Australian market. Certification to the voluntary environmental labelling standards provides, to the manufacturer an environmental summary of the products performance, a guideline
of key environmental loads that management should be considering with regard to environmental decisions in their products development,
as well as market recognition. It is
therefore important that the voluntary environmental labelling standards are
both credible and set independently.
The unique approach of the Australian Ecolabel Program is that the ecolabel and certification process is based on the real environmental impacts of a product or service. The program is concerned with the real environmental loads of operations.
It is possible that a company which has an extensive range of environmental management tools will not
be able to achieve certification, however a company which may have no environmental management policies receives certification because of preferable levels of environmental load by their product.
In the end, it is only real environmental loads that
count.
Potential participants to this program should review the standards section to check the current state of the standard and key criteria. A full list of current standards can be found in that section and are
freely available for download.
Standards Register Page.
Certification of products and services is based on the "Rules Governing the Award
of a Good Environmental Choice Eco-Label". These
rules make key references to the environmental
standards criteria under each product category.
Copies of this document can be obtained by
contacting our office.
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