ISO 14024, Environmental labels and declarations – Type I environmental labelling – Principles and procedures, has been updated to meet the heightened demands of consumers.
As companies have realized that environmental concerns can translate into a market advantage, various environmental declarations, claims, and labels—such as natural, recyclable, eco-friendly, low-energy, and recycled content—have emerged.
While these claims have attracted consumers looking to reduce their environmental impact, they have also led to some confusion and scepticism. The revised ISO 14024 aims to clarify any confusion and make sense of claims and labels.
“This latest revision aims to strengthen the guidelines for facts and documentation used for ecolabelling and defining the competence of verifiers, putting them in line with requirements for other types of environmental labels mentioned in the guidelines of ISO 14020,” Björn-Erik Lönn, convenor of the working group that revised the standard, said.
“The core principles and descriptions of the original 1999 version have been kept unchanged as they fully describe the work that Type I ecolabels so successfully do all over the world,” Lönn added.
ISO 14024 sets a rigorous framework and guide for Type I ecolabels and the revision supports the position these ecolabels hold in different markets and for a variety of products. The objective of ISO 14024 is to secure transparency and credibility when implementing Type I environmental labelling programs and harmonize the principles and procedures applicable to these programs.
Type I environmental labelling programs are voluntary and can be operated by public or private agencies at a national, regional, or international level. ISO 14024 establishes the principles and procedures for developing Type I environmental labelling programs, including the selection of product categories, product environmental criteria, product function characteristics, and assessing and demonstrating compliance. The standard also establishes the certification procedures for awarding the label.
“It’s all about having correct and highly trustworthy environmental information in the marketplace,” Lönn concluded.